Canary Files: First Song
by RenegadeBoo717
Summary: Octavia "Canary" West is out to answer some questions she has about her last reporting gig. What is Umbrella up to and will she survive the ordeal? Warning AU
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1. I'm Like a Bird

October 26, 1998

It was humid and hot, that was one thing. I could deal with that, really, I could. If anything, the sky being overcast helped immensely. Some nice, cool rain would be refreshing. Being born and raised in Texas tends to give a girl tolerance for that sort of thing. Having a job as a freelance investigative reporter whose latest assignments have been described as "war torn", "desolate", and "bloody" helps deal with other forms of discomfort.

However, my car's axle had broken over a nasty pothole in a small town. That was a whole other barrel of fish. The car was a piece of junk, which was why I had bought it. I had meant to repair and detail it as something to do while I wasn't working. The local mechanic had said it would be repaired in a few days, which meant I needed to get a hotel room or the nearest thing possible.

"Hey, you a'right? Yer lookin a little pale there", oh right, the mechanic. He was a tall, heavily muscled man with just a bit of paunch starting to appear. He had his strawberry-blonde hair in a military crew cut and a five o' clock shadow starting to appear. His ratty looking orange tank top looked ancient and his thick, oil-stained denim jeans were tucked into scuffed, brown cowboy boots. He was an all right kind of guy, who was giving me a ride in the tow truck.

"No, I'm fine, really".

The honest truth is that I never really tan; well I guess I turn the color normal people are. I've always been naturally pale, like my mother. I also inherited her light blonde hair and lean figure. I inherited my light green eyes from my dad and unfortunately, his curiosity.

"Whatcha doin' here anyway?" he looked suspiciously at me over his glasses. "I don't recall seeing you around here before".

"I'm taking a break from work. Things went sideways and my uncle and a few other coworkers were injured pretty badly. Then, when we were in the hospital, we found out our passports had been pulled. My uncle and the others who were injured are currently in physical therapy in Houston and I needed a vacation after everything. I figured I would do what my grandfather suggested and go sightseeing. He suggested this place actually."

"Huh, well not much chance of anything bad in Morris' Point. It's pretty quiet here most of the time. Tomorrow might be a bit loud though."

"Really, why?"

As soon as i had asked he had started to grin widely.

"It's the town's founding festival. Our town's been standing for over one hundred years".

"Awesome".

He clearly agreed.

"There's gonna be a cook off, fireworks, and i think the amusement park is gonna be half off".

"It's alright. I love fireworks".

It's true I do love explosions. I also love going to the shooting range with my grandfather and uncle, long distance and endurance running, and baking.

"This the only place you going"?

"Nah, I'm checking out a few other amusement parks and places he recommended".

The town was well sized with a couple of neighborhoods, a couple of high schools, and a boardwalk amusement park. It also had quite a few farms, a fishery, and a couple of medical research labs. Not bad for a town split between an island and the gulf coast.

The scenery was green, which was pretty typical for a coastal south Texas town. Morris' Point was wedged between the Gulf of Mexico and a large stretch of wetland (which was owned by the same company as the research labs). It was located a few counties away from Houston. The town was generally regarded as a quiet town of upper-class retirees, researchers, and locals. Most tourists thought it was a nice vacation spot for fishing, family fun, or just relaxation.

"What was your name again"?

"West. Octavia West."

"Octavia"?

"Please, just call me West or Canary. I really don't like my first name."

"Canary"?

"I guess it's because I wear a lot of yellow. It's my lucky color".

He stopped at the light and looked me over. I had my shoulder length, light blond hair pulled back in a messy bun. I was wearing dark blue denim jeans and a sunshine colored tank top under a gray Henley. There was a black choker necklace with a small, silver bird on my neck. My black sneakers had yellow laces and bottoms.

"Lucky color? From what your school"?

"Nah, I graduated from University of Houston."

"Huh, well we're here".

We had pulled up to a decent looking garage. It had a few deep set oil stains in the pavement.

"Anyway, what was your name again"?

"Bradley Davis".

"Thanks for the ride. Do you want me to pay now or?"

"Now if you wouldn't mind".

I paid Bradley and pulled my yellow backpack over my shoulders. It was time to explore the town


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Secret Agent Man

The weather was starting to become overcast; there were more clouds in the sky than before I entered the garage. I like it when it rains. It started out because my mother hated the fact that I preferred to stay indoors and read, instead of playing with the kids that lived near us. She believed that I wouldn't be "socialized" enough.

In my defense, the other kids were assholes who harassed me on a regular basis. I'm talking about little monsters chased me down, hit me, and tore my books apart. I tried to be nice, scouts honor. Unfortunately, I guess I just had a sort of unconscious neon sign that said, "Please make my life a living hell". The fact that they were a year older than me, and my mom dressed me like a complete social reject. I am talking about the world's ugliest sweaters and overalls. Mom said that if I tried to be friends with them, they would stop. Two words: BULL SHIT. The little bastards got off on my pain and suffering.

When it rained, I didn't have to worry about Mom forcing me into the lion's den that was my neighborhood. Eventually, I escaped from the situation when those elementary school sadists broke my leg on the way to school one Monday. I'm serious; they pushed me in front of a bus when the teacher was looking. Mom and Dad got a wake up call and I got shipped to my grandfather's house. My parents couldn't or didn't want to deal with the fact that I was the neighborhood punching bag.

Grandpa had been a wartime correspondent during World War Two and the Vietnam War. He had also been fairly unpopular for always pointing out when authority figures were corrupted or had made bad calls. He had been my inspiration for becoming a reporter in the first place.

Fabian West was a brick house of a man who had raised two sons, my father Eric and my uncle Francis. Only Francis had followed in his footsteps and became a freelance reporter. My father was a college professor who taught virology.

Grandpa helped me learn to stand up for myself. He enrolled me in self-defense classes and taught me how to box. If Mom had known at the time, she would have had an aneurysm. According to my mother, violence under any circumstances was forbidden, even if someone was trying to do me bodily harm.

He also let me dress myself, which meant tank tops, sundresses, and blue jeans. After Grandpa took me out to get new clothes with the help of one of his lady friends, we burned all of the ugly sweaters and overalls. Now that was a fun day.

In short, Grandpa was more of a parent to me than my actual parents. He actually listened to me about my problems and feelings, instead of treating me like an idiot. He took me to different parts of the world during the summers to show me other cultures and historical places. His hour-long rant on what was wrong with the Alamo was something to behold.

But enough reminiscing, I was on a mission in this town. I had told Bradley that I was on vacation. That was a lie. The part about my previous job being FUBAR was most definitely not.

I had been previously doing some freelance journalism about a civil war in West Africa. I had accompanied my uncle Frank to get some more experience in the field. The Kijuju region of the country had been a relatively peaceful region of the country while still being close to the revolutionary action.

However, I had stumbled upon a lead that the government had been dealing with biological weapons manufacturers. The West African government had supposedly helped a pharmaceutical company force the Ndipiya tribe off of their homeland in return for a large kickback. After hearing that, I had started digging into the supposed dirty deeds. I also heard about a factory accident that had happened a couple of years ago that the government had hushed up.

My uncle Frank and I along with some other reporters had made our way into the marshlands on our way to talk to the Ndipiya tribe to find out why they had been forced out. Mainly, whether or not it was just a simple land grab or if they had had some local resource that the company had wanted.

That had been when all hell had broken loose. While we had been in our boat, someone had blown up the local dam. Our boat had capsized and many of us were thrown overboard. I had managed to get back in the boat quickly, but the others weren't so lucky. Crocodiles had attacked many of the people in the water, including my uncle. My Uncle Frank got away with just a broken leg. Some of the other reporters though, died from blood loss on the way to the hospital or were eaten by the beasts. I gained a healthy fear and hatred for green scaly river beasts whose names end in "dile" and "gator".

While we were in the hospital, dealing with our losses and injuries, we found out that the West African government had pulled our passports. We were deported back to our respective home countries almost immediately. I smelled the scent of a cover-up, but kept quiet about it. My uncle was in too much pain for me to push the issue. He needed medical care and fast. He couldn't get it if I got us thrown in West African prison.

After I had come home to the states, I had heard about the Raccoon City Incident. The official story was that a nuclear reactor had malfunctioned and had a meltdown. However, accounts from actual survivors had indicated that there had been a viral outbreak of an experimental biological weapon. Reports stated it was a highly contagious infection that somehow brought the dead back to life. The infection could apparently be spread easily through a bite or a scratch.

Adding weight to thee statements was the fact that in Raccoon City's neighboring Arklay Mountains there had been a string of missing person's cases. When the bodies were finally found, they were often half eaten or at the very least had some sort of bite marks. The media had gone into a frenzy and dubbed the event as "The Arklay Cannibal Killings". Two squads of Raccoon City's S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics And Rescue Service) unit were sent into the forest to investigate. They came back with many members presumed dead, and the survivors raving about walking corpses. One month later, the Raccoon City incident happened and a city with a population of over a hundred thousand was decimated.

What was the link between these two incidents and Morris' Point? The Umbrella Pharmaceutical Corporation was the company in West Africa that I had decided to investigate. In addition, Raccoon City had been a sleepy little Midwestern United States hamlet until the Umbrella Corporation had heavily industrialized it. Before the city had been destroyed, as much as forty percent of the population had held jobs with the pharmaceutical giant. The company had heavily improved the infrastructure of the city at their personal expense including the subway system.

Morris's Point was quite similar, but on a slightly smaller scale. The small town's population had increased by about thirty percent since Umbrella had moved in. The hospital, schools, and police force had been renovated and expanded due to Umbrella's funding.

So here I was, undercover as a tourist. My grandfather had actually taken me here for one summer to visit the amusement park on the pier. We had also visited the nature boat ride through the nature preserve, the candy store, and the town museum. From what I could see, the town hadn't changed much. It still had that calm, down home, sort of feeling.

As I was walking, I noticed all the set up for the town fair that Bradley had said was happening tomorrow. I could see many booths that wouldn't be out of place in a carnival midway. There were a lot of burly guys getting the cook off area put together. A prominent sign stating "Sponsored By Umbrella" was in the middle of the just served to let me know that I was a twenty-three year old who was in over her head.

_I mean __what am I thinking?_ _My "big plan" basically amounts to breaking into a secure medical research lab and making off with as much incriminating data as I possibly can._

_Will I probably die doing this?_

_Oh yeah._

_If I get away with this, will I find the answers behind what Umbrella has been doing?_

_Abso-freaking-lutely!_

_Worth it?_

_Heck yeah! _

I found myself by the town's "World Famous" homemade candy store. I figured that I would make myself less conspicuous by doing the entire tourist experience. Also I had a sugar craving and wanted taffy.

I walked into the candy store and my mouth started watering. There was almost every type of saltwater taffy and fudge available. I grabbed a bag and started loading up on taffy.

_Bubblegum Taffy…. yes_

_Grape…. yes _

_Banana…hell no, those taste like wax_

_Strawberry…. yes_

_Peach…maybe_

_Cotton Candy… Want_

_Root Beer Float… interesting but no_

_Blueberry… no_

_Mint Chip… scrumptious, yes _

_Pumpkin Pie… maybe a few, nah_

_Green Apple… definitely_

_Licorice… do not want, ever _

_Blue Rasp- _"Ooof!"

I looked up from the floor through my bangs up at the guy who had knocked me over. He had to be at least six feet tall. He had slicked back blonde hair and oddly enough, looked like David Bowie. He was wearing a dark brown trench coat over black slacks and a dark blue dress shirt. However the most obvious thing about him was his black sunglasses. They completely covered his eyes yet he gave the impression that he was looking curiously at me.

I shifted my body to get up and he extended his hand to me. I took it and pulled myself up off the ground. I dusted myself off and bent down to pick up my bag of taffy.

" I must apologize for that. I am not usually so clumsy."

Holy foxtrot! The guy had a voice like imported dark chocolate, dark, rich, and absolutely sinful. Mama like. He is still very creepy though.

"It's alright. It happens every now and then. Don't sweat it."

I turned to go check out the other sugary treats on display. There were some jars filled with different flavors of stick candy, a display case filled with several kinds of fudge, and a stand filled with "gourmet" lollipops. I heard footsteps following behind me on my way to check out the lollipops. I turned around and faced the person following me?

_Oh, it's glasses guy. What's his deal?_

"Please,I must insist that you allow me to make it up to you. Perhaps, let me accompany you around town?"

That would be a very bad idea, mainly because I was going to try to break into an Umbrella lab tonight. At least that was the plan before my car broke down. Also, I was getting serious "do not trust" feelings from him.

I frowned slightly.

" I'm sorry. I'm not really interested in company. I just came to this town for a vacation."

"As a matter of fact so did I, why don't we take in the sights together? I'll pay, of course. Consider it my way of making it up to you."

Then it struck me. Glasses guy would probably help make me stand out less. If I was part of a group, no matter how small, I wouldn't be as suspicious as I would be by myself.

"Um, okay. I guess it wouldn't hurt."

Authors Note: Since the country in Resident Evil 5 is never mentioned, I decided to refer to it as West Africa. Yes, Glasses Guy is Wesker. For those people wondering, Wesker does have an angle to joining up with Canary. Hint: the same one she has for joining up with him. Readers win an internet if they can guess where "Uncle Frank" is from.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Vacation

After continuing to browse through the sweet smelling store, I had ended up with my rather large bag of saltwater taffy, a couple of blue raspberry lollipops, and a couple packages of various flavors of bubble gum. To be honest, a basket would have come in handy. Oh well, hindsight is twenty-twenty. Glasses guy had been by my side the whole time, being my silent shadow the entire time. He hadn't gotten anything in the store for himself, which was weird.

To be honest, Glasses guy didn't seem like the kind of person who would like sweet things. Then again I didn't look like the kind of girl who was going to try to break into a medical research lab. However, it begged the question: who goes into a candy store and doesn't even look at what's being sold?

_Oh well, creepy creepertons aside, I need to pay for this stuff._

I made my way towards the register, tall, blonde, and creepy at my side. The elderly female cashier had just finished with a previous customer when we reached the counter.

"Now is that all for you, sweetie?" the cashier asked.

I pulled my backpack off and reached inside for my wallet. I had just pulled it out when David Bowie's much more conservative cousin had pulled out his wallet.

"Allow me to pay," he stated.

_I can pay for myself, thank you very much!_

"Actually, I have it covered."

"Really, I feel as a gentleman that I must pay."

"That is really not necessary."

" I must insist."

The cashier suddenly interjected, "Oh, you two are such a cute couple!"

My brain temporarily shut down upon hearing her comment. That is the only excuse I have for what came out of my mouth.

"I –but- we –not –he."

While I was dealing with the connection between my mouth and my brain, glasses guy had handed the money to the beaming cashier and accepted the bag of plastic bag of candy. He started to walk away steering me towards the door with his hand on my back. Just before we went through the door, me still sputtering, the cashier called out to us.

"Now take care, you two lovebirds. Have fun."

Glasses guy continued to steer me out the door and down the street. As soon as I got control of my senses, I stopped. I crossed my arms in front of my chest and faced glasses guy. I needed to get a few things straight.

"Okay, before we get mistaken as a couple again, I think introductions are in order. My name is Octavia, Octavia West. Call me West."

"My name is Albert Wesker. The pleasure is all mine."

_Oookay. Captain creepy has a name. _

He handed me my bag of candy and I shoved it into my backpack. This was sort of awkward; we were just standing around saying nothing. On the other hand…

_Here's my opening! Time to get the plan in motion._

"You came here to see the sights here, right? Well, all the really fun stuff is on the island part of the town. Trust me, I've been here once when I was younger. There's an amusement park, an aquarium, and there's even a nature tour boat ride through the nature preserve. There's also the beach but I guess it's not really the kind of weather for that. Oh, and there are probably some souvenir stores there too."

_More importantly, the research base is on the island. In fact, if I remember correctly, it is located fairly close to the nature boat tour's route._

Wesker smiled, if it could be called that.

_Oh my GOD, that is creepy. He looks like he just ate someone's kitten._

"That sounds utterly delightful. However, I don't remember seeing a bridge."

"Yeah, from what I remember, there isn't one. There is a ferry about every hour though. If we head over there now, we can catch it before the next boat leaves."

"Very well. Let us go."

From what I could tell, Wesker was a quiet and focused person. He acted smoothly and deliberately, like the way my grandfather's biker buddies track down deer in the hunting season. Grandpa's friends might be loud at the local bar and on the road, but they take hunting season very seriously. As soon as they hit the forest, I could swear they turn into ghosts for all the noise they make. Wesker did not speak very much at all. Then again, I wasn't exactly being chatty either.

The street we had followed had turned onto another that had one of the local high schools. It was just letting the students out and through the horde of teenagers, I could just make out the name: Oswell E. Spencer High School.

Yes, I was certain that Umbrella had made a nice cozy haven for themselves, like they had in Raccoon City. Renovate the infrastructure so as to bolster good feelings. Slap your name on a few buildings to boost the CEO's ego and show who exactly is helping out. There might even be a few bribes toward the officials to keep blueprints confidential and for the authorities to look the other way around the research lab.

We turned onto a sidewalk with a breathtaking ocean view. The island part of Morris' Point was about two to three miles away from the coast. To be honest it was rather inconvenient not having a bridge, but I thought of other reasons for the lack of a connection between the two halves of the town.

_In the event of a hurricane they would be screwed, I mean an evacuation would be a nightmare. Umbrella on the other hand wouldn't really care as long as they… Oh oh oh, the lack of bridge is probably what Umbrella wants. The island half of the town being isolated in the event of an outbreak would make clean up a hell of a more easy. The fact that the research lab is located on the island half would mean that an outbreak would be isolated. A bridge would just let the virus migrate over to the mainland. Oh great, I'm turning into a conspiracy theorist. C'mon Canary, wait until you find hard evidence until you think every little thing is part of some horrible plot by Umbrella._

Wesker and I made our way down the street, the wind having picked up and now blowing in our faces. The sky was now even more overcast and it looked like it would surely rain tonight. In addition, the waves were getting fairly high on the beach. The air was briny and sand was being blown all over the street. The street was rather similar to the sea wall in Galveston. The beach was lower than the street and was accessible by stairs.

_Hmm, we better get on the ferry now before the sea gets too rough to cross over. _

We approached the dock and got in line for our tickets on the ferry. From what I could tell, the boat was in fine condition. On the other hand, I really don't know that much about boats. I know my way around cars and motorcycles, but boats are somewhat out of my experience.

Also in the line were a couple of families and a large flock of teenagers. The line quickly moved and we soon reached the front of the line to the kiosk.

"Two for the ferry?"

I quickly handed the old man manning the kiosk the money for the tickets before Wesker could pull out his slim, black leather wallet. I can't help it that I'm competitive and I don't like people paying for me. To be honest, it's a personal pride thing.

I noticed that some of the people weren't paying and instead had some sort of pass to get on the ferry. They must have been locals trying to get home or do some shopping.

The ferry soon let down the gates and a few cars drove on. Wesker and I hopped onto the bridge to get on the ferry. We soon climbed up the stairs to take us to the sheltered upper level for people who weren't driving. We secured a bench near the stern and got comfortable.

Wesker was his normal quiet self, looking all over the boat from where he was sitting down with his hands on his knees. We heard a commotion coming up from the stairs and a large family led by a heavyset middle-aged woman in a loud pink t-shirt slowly made their way towards our bench.

There were about five children in the family the oldest looking to be about ten or eleven years old. There was what I thought to be

The mother (as far as I could figure) sat them down on those benches closest to us and the youngest child toddled their way towards us. I couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl and to be honest, I didn't really care. I did care that the kid seemed to be oddly fixated on either Wesker or me.

One of my self confessed berserk buttons is people not watching their kids. What makes me even angrier than that, are parents not stopping their kids from bothering other people who are just minding their own business. This kid was starting to make grabbing hands motions towards Wesker and Wesker was starting to look fairly uneasy.

"Uh, ma'am. I am pretty sure that this is yours," I said while pointing at the small child who was starting to try to climb onto Wesker, reaching for what could have been Wesker's sunglasses. Of course, given my experience with small children, the kid could have also been trying to get ahold of Wesker's hair or nose.

"Oh, he just wants to play with y'all" she demurred.

"That's nice but my friend here really needs his space so could you come and get your kid?"

She huffed indignantly at me but came and got her kid off of Wesker while shooting me a dirty look.

_What the hell did I do? It's your kid! _

The kid was still making grasping motions at Wesker while she tugged him off. Wesker looked very irritated about the whole incident and I didn't blame him. The woman looked extremely put out and started talking loudly about how his companion (me) obviously hated children and how horrible I must be to be around.

_Lady, I barely know him and I don't plan on fixing that anytime soon. I mean, how passive aggressive can you get? Oh hey, nature's calling. Best escape route ever. _

I quickly excused myself to go powder my nose and I got up to go to the ferry's small one-person bathroom. As I left I could hear her start to talk to (More like talk at) Wesker about her kids soccer team or something. I did my business quickly and washed my hands. Then I caught sight of my reflection in the dingy mirror. My hair was still a bit wild looking from being knocked down in the candy store and the wind. I let what little hair that was still in the bun out. I quickly combed my hair and pulled it back into a tight ponytail using a few of the hairpins I had used for my bun.

_No use leaving my hair free with the wind like this. Hmm… my bangs are kind of getting long. I really need to get them trimmed. Speaking of that, when the hell did I last get a haircut? Oh right, before Africa and after that horrible family reunion. I swear my cousin needs to control his kids better. Putting gum in my hair because I wouldn't play with them is not cute. It's bratty and entitled. Besides, I am not their babysitter. Watch your own damn kids. _

I left the small bathroom and made my way back to the bench where I had last seen Wesker. The tall blonde creeper was still sitting on the bench. If anything, he now looked like he wanted to drown himself, or the kid's mom just to get her to stop talking at him. Having been in similar situation several times before in my life, I decided to take pity on him and perform a rescue.

"Hey Wesker, do you mind taking a few pictures of me on the boat?" I asked while holding up the disposable camera I had fished out of my large backpack.

"Of course dear heart," he stated, noticeably relieved to get away from the woman who was bound and determined to talk his ear off.

We went up towards the bow of the ship where there was only a metal railing instead of the ceiling to floor walls. We went through the door and I leaned my hips against the railing. I handed him the disposable camera and I turned towards the island in the distance. I heard a few clicks of the camera and Wesker handed it back to me. I kept my face turned toward the island while keeping a firm grip on the railing.

"How about we just stay here until we get to the island? To be honest, I'm not good with small children."

"Perfectly understandable", Wesker flatly replied.

_Does he ever stop speaking in monotone?_

We waited there at the front of the boat for it to reach the island dock, Wesker standing there firmly with his arms crossed.

"So, have you figured out what you want to do when we get there" I asked offhandedly. I took a minute to scratch the back of my neck while stretching my other arm out. "I mean the weather looks like it could turn into a downpour so I guess the amusement park will probably be pretty deserted. It's a good thing if you don't mind getting wet and hate lines. The most that the operators will probably do is close the rides if there's any lightning but only to wait it out from what I've experienced. If you don't mind crowds and hate getting soaked, then the aquarium is probably a good bet."

I was honestly curious what he wanted to do and I was bored. He didn't seem like the sort of person who liked anything remotely fun. Actually, I really shouldn't be talking. I like fun way too much. I think my best friend Dylan described me best when he called me "an adrenaline junkie and a budding supervillan". I cannot help the fact that I like burning things and I do take the necessary precautions. In fact, I think we would have needed that fire extinguisher anyway, especially after last Thanksgiving. Then again, that's just my opinion.

"The aquarium sounds delightful dearheart."

"Please don't call me that."

"My apologies, Octavia."

"Please don't call me that either. If you need to, you can call me West or Canary."

"Canary?"

"It's a long standing nickname."

The boat soon stopped and people began to get off starting with the large flock of teenagers, the families that had been on board and finally, Wesker and me.

The island part of the town was filled with stores of all kinds near the boat dock. There were the requisite souvenir shops, a gas station, and a bait shop. Just down the street I could see a gun and hunting supply store. Down another road I could see a small restaurant.

"Hey Wesker, I'm getting kind of hungry. Do you mind if we stop to get a bite?"

_It is past lunchtime anyway. _

The diner was a typical American greasy spoon. The floor was made of blue linoleum and the green and white striped wallpaper was starting to peel in the corners of the room. The booths were made of vinyl and the tales were made of fake wood. The place smelled faintly of old grease and bleach. There was an old jukebox in the corner playing "American Pie". I freaking loved it.

_Aww, this makes me feel nostalgic for all those summer road trips with Grandpa._

The waitress seated us at a booth near the entrance quickly taking our drink orders. Wesker ordered a black coffee and I opted for a Coke.

I perused the menu for anything that sounded good and ended up unable to decide between a bacon cheeseburger and a plate of fried chicken and waffles. I had finally decided on the chicken and waffles when the next song on the jukebox had started playing. The waitress had come back to our table with our drinks.

"What all are you having?"

"I shall have the minestrone soup."

"Can I have the chicken and waffles with the maple syrup on the side, thanks."

"Alrighty, I'll have that out to y'all in a jiffy."

After that little interlude silence reigned at our little table. Well, as much as it could if I considered the noise going on around us. The diner wasn't that crowded but it had all the usual chatter between patrons with rattles and clangs occasionally coming from the kitchen. I didn't really want to talk. Partly because I don't do it that often and when I do I tend to ramble on and on. From the looks of it, Wesker didn't want to start a conversation either.

"So Miss West, you have been to Morris' Point before?"

_Well I was wrong about that._

"Um, yeah. It was about ten or eleven years ago with my grandfather."

"Is he the one who gave you your nickname?"

"Uh, no. I was first called Canary in middle school. I just had really bad luck and a lot of people ended up noticing."

"However did that turn into calling you Canary?"

"Have you ever heard the term 'Canary in a coal mine'? Stuff just always seemed to happen to me before it happened to anyone else. People even started to keep an eye on me so they could get out of the way in case of an emergency."

_If anything, it's at least better than being called a jinx. _

"Such as?"

"If someone came to school with a cold, I would end up being the first one to catch it from the contagious idiot. If the cafeteria food had gone bad, I would be the first one running for a trashcan or the nurse's office. At prom when someone spiked the punch, I was the first to have some and end up drunk. Y'know, stuff like that."

"Sounds…frustrating."

"It was, but enough about me. What brings you here?"

"I heard about this town through my previous job. I am now taking a few… _me _days before my next job interview."

"Oh food's here!"

The waitress had just brought Wesker's soup and my chicken and waffles to the table. I could smell the fried goodness on my plate, but before I could even cut into my dinner all hell broke loose.

One of the busboys that I had seen earlier had shot out from the small hallway that held the restrooms like he had seen a ghost, before slipping on a puddle of spilled iced tea and falling to the ground, knocking over a couple of chairs. Then he turned around trying to get traction to get up and away from what had frightened him so much. Then we all saw it.

The thing was horrible. At first, it had looked human, but no human I knew of had greying skin that was practically sliding off of its flesh and bone. The creature was hunched over and sort of shuffled its way into the rest of the restaurant. The busboy was still on the floor trying to scramble away from the creature, no, zombie. It was the only word that made any sense. At some point, the zombie must have once been a man, but it was as far from human as an elephant was from an elephant seal.

As far as I could figure looking back, the restaurant must have had a cleaning supply closet in the small hallway near the bathrooms. The zombie must have come from either there or the bathrooms. The poor busboy must have seen or accidentally let it loose and had run for his life.

The whole restaurant had gone deathly silent and still. The only sounds that were heard was the ungainly shuffle of the zombies feet and the unearthly, rattling moan that came from the thing's decaying throat. I could see Wesker tensing up in the corner in my eye. Then, all of a sudden it lunged.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Welcome to the Jungle

The monster had lunged straight for the unfortunate busboy's face, but had been blocked by the busboy's arms trying to fend the zombie off. The creature hadn't been deterred and kept swiping at him even with the busboy's hands on the zombie's shoulders keeping him at a distance. The zombie's jaws stretched inhumanly wide showing yellowed teeth and grayish saliva dripping from the rotting lips. Time had slowed to a crawl in my mind and I began to move.

_That's it; I have seen enough George Romero movies to know how this ends. No one deserves that._

I slowly picked up the knife that had come with my meal, taking care not to make any noise that could draw the zombie's attention to me. I slipped noiselessly out of my chair and I quickly crept up behind the creature. The busboy was starting to lose his grip on the zombie, and I could clearly see the panic and desperation in his eyes.

_Now!_

I pounced onto the rotting corpse and the sharp knife in my hand slid messily into the space between its skull and spinal cord. The undead creature stopped moving and stopped breathing. The busboy was gasping for breath as he shoved the still corpse off of him. He looked at me, then at the body in disbelief.

"What the fuck was that?" he shouted.

At this explosive inquiry, the other employees and customers came out their collective shock and started to panic. Meanwhile, I furiously wiped off the hand that had gotten zombie goo on it on a handful of paper napkins.

_Eeeeeeeeewww! Dead guy smell!_

"Well, I'm pretty sure, and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that may have been a zombie."

I will be honest and admit that my voice broke a couple, oh all right, several times saying that sentence. My hands were shaking and I was taking long, deep breaths to try and keep myself calm. I was both excited and terrified.

All of a sudden, the body of the thing that had attacked the busboy, started to break down and fizz into nothingness. The only thing left of it was the clothes it had been wearing and oddly enough, a couple of hundred dollar bills.

_That is weird and gross and I'm not touching it._

"Anyway," I asked, "Are you alright? It didn't bite you, did it?"

"N-Nah, I'm alright." He seemed to be getting a grip

I threw down a couple of dollar bills for my coke. I took one last look at the fluffy golden waffle and the crispy strips of fried chicken on the plate. The little bottle of maple syrup was clear and I could see the sweet, shining amber colored liquid. My cold coke had just gotten a refill and would have been a good contrast with the hot, fresh chicken and waffles. I mean, come on, the waffle had powdered sugar lightly sprinkled over it. It would have tasted so good. It was a shame I wasn't going to get to eat it and not just because of the dead-guy smell.

If there was one zombie here, there could easily be more around. I didn't want to hang around and wait for the possible hordes of undead to come find me. I needed a plan and fast.

_Oookay. Weapon, weapon, need a weapon. The knife I just used is a bad idea; the grip on it was horrible. The one I have in my backpack is better. Still need another option, though. Fighting in close quarters will probably end up with me bitten and infected. I need to be smart about this._

I had noticed Wesker tensely watching the wide windows on the front of the diner. He suddenly snapped his head around towards me when he heard the zipper from my backpack opening. He watched me rifle through my bag for my knife and its sheath. I swiftly attached it to my belt and I pulled my knife out of its sheath. The five inches of stainless steel with a purple handle and a dragon etched in the flat of the blade, faintly gleamed in the fluorescent electric lights of the diner.

I could see the busboy watching me inspect my knife, stunned.

He asked me incredulously, "You had that and you stabbed it with one our knives?"

"The zipper on my bag would have made too much noise. That knife was closer and available so I used it."

My knife was a present from my grandfather as a "just because". I also suspect it was so I could defend myself from muggers and other people trying to assault me. My grandfather tends to give my uncle and me the seemingly random stuff he finds at the flea markets, thrift shops, and gun shows he frequents.

_It's a knife with a pretty dragon on it. Who wouldn't want one?_

I sheathed my pretty weapon and pulled out my lighter from my backpack, shoving it into my pocket. I zipped up my backpack and threw it over my shoulders.

Meanwhile everyone else was still panicking. Family and friends were arguing over what to do and some people were starting to cry. Wesker was still waiting and watching, for what I didn't know. I started looking around the diner for anything I could realistically use as a weapon.

_Well, I don't see anything that I can use to defend myself. I guess I'm using Mr. Stabby after all._

I took one look at Wesker and started to make my way to the door. The busboy saw me start to leave and got in my way.

"Where are you going? There could be more of those things out there!"

"Exactly! This place is making so much noise that they'll be drawn straight here. I'm leaving before more zombies show up. This place isn't exactly secure. I mean, look at those huge windows. They could just smash their way in," I explained flatly.

"How are you so damn calm? Everyone else except for you two is freaking out?"

_You two?_

I looked at my side. Wesker was there and he looked back at me with his eyebrow raised, as if to say "What?"

"I heard rumors about something like this happening a few months ago. I just never thought they would be real or could happen here. Look, I'm leaving this place. You can do whatever the hell you want, but if I were you, I'd get off the island or barricade myself somewhere safe."

I headed out the door and I broke into a run for the docks, Wesker keeping pace. I could have sworn there was a gun store around here somewhere. I didn't hear anymore undead, but I hadn't heard the original one until it had been practically in the same room as me. There were people milling about on the docks and on the streets who probably didn't have any idea what was going on. The ferry was starting to take on passengers and I could see the Busboy and a bunch of the diner customers running towards the ferry trying to make it on before it left. I turned the corner to the street with the gun store, away from the ferry, and then my world exploded into an all-encompassing sensation of pain and heat.

The first thing that registered to me was that I was blind. I couldn't see and I couldn't hear anything except for a dull roar. I could feel the rough gravel and grit of the road digging into my face, hands, and knees. I sensed little bits of debris raining down on me like tiny, hot pieces of hail. I groaned, struggling to get to my feet and got onto my knees. I could feel parts of my arms and legs stinging from what would be commonly termed "road rash". In short, I felt like crap and it probably wasn't going to get better.

My vision slowly came back hazy at first and along with it came the screams and cries of the terrified and confused people around the area. I shakily stood up and tried to turn around. I could see the vague outline of Wesker on his knees steadying himself, hastily fiddling with something on his face, his sunglasses perhaps. I stumbled, swaying like a leaf in the wind. What I saw chilled me to the core.

The ferry had been reduced to a charred shell by the same booming explosion that had knocked me on my ass. The remains of the boat were still burning along with part of the dock and the fire seemed to be spreading along the wooden planks. There was smoke and ash rising into the sky and drifting through the air. The kiosk where people had paid their fare to cross had been flattened. There were several injured people who were closer to the ferry starting to move and-

_Oh my god! There were people and cars on the ferry weren't there? _

Then worst sound possible hit me, a low guttural moan, and then another. Yet another moan joined in and I realized that undead like the one from the diner were getting near to where I was. I needed a weapon, now. I clumsily rushed over to Wesker and almost tripped and fell on my face. There in the middle of the road was a crowbar. It was painted orange for visibility and somewhat scuffed and scratched from the explosion and use, but it was about three feet long and heavy.

_This'll work for now. I shall call you Mr. Smashy!_

"Wesker" I said helping him up, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he stated stiffly.

"Just shaken?"

He gave a curt nod in affirmation and winced.

_Poor guy must have gone down hard. Huh, you'd think he would have had some injuries, but there's not a scratch on him._

"Okay, we have to keep moving I heard moans coming from the direction of the diner. We should keep away from the main roads to avoid those things."

"And the crowbar is for?"

"Smashing heads," I stated bluntly. I didn't see any point in mincing my words. The moans were getting louder and closer and we were out in the open like sitting ducks. I wasn't even about to comment on how scared I was. Dwelling on how helpless and trapped I felt would not help me at all. The crowbar and my knife made me feel somewhat better, but I knew the odds were against me in a situation like this.

_No, what did we just decide on? We are __**not**__ going to die here. We are going to that research lab. Then, we are breaking into the research lab. Then, we are getting the hell off of this island. That is what is going to happen, no matter how many undead skulls we have to smash open. __**We will survive this.**_

I hustled my way towards the gun store keeping an eye on my surroundings and an ear out for trouble. I could still hear the horrible moaning and I could smell the smoke from the burning pier. It was like a church bell to me, loud and incessant. I couldn't block it out or else the things could get the jump on my blonde companion or me. We were steadily making our way on our unsteady legs when we saw the undead.

We had been passing by an alley when the rotting thing had stumbled out of the shadows, surprisingly quiet until it had noticed us. I quickly swung my crowbar like a baseball bat and caught it in the face knocking it to the ground. Its facial structure collapsed like a smashed pumpkin made of rotting meat, the bone audibly cracking. I could hear it trying to groan and it started to try to rise. I raised the crowbar up and swung it down on its head again, turning it into a bloody mess with visible bone fragments. The body then proceeded to rapidly decompose in front of our eyes leaving a shiny silver key with a fish engraved on one side of it. I ended up grabbing it before noticing it had a messed up version of the Umbrella logo on the other side. If anything, I could probably use it to pick a lock or I could just end up pawning it.

_Well, that was pretty damn random. _

After that random encounter, Wesker and I finally reached the gun and ammunition store and ran in before securely locking the door. Wesker went through the place, making sure it was secure before stocking up on ammunition. It made me wonder if he had a gun or if he was planning on taking one from here. I vaguely remembered him taking the diner zombie's two grand. Maybe he was going to leave some money behind to pay for what he took. On the other hand, this was a time of emergency. Wasn't there a clear and present need clause or something for times like this?

Tuning out the distant screaming and moaning that was happening outside I began searching the shelves for something I was familiar with. As soon as I had found a nice double-barreled shotgun like the one grandpa used, I noticed that the glass cases that held the guns were locked tight. I examined the lock and it didn't seem like something I could pick. I also didn't think that the owner of a gun store would be irresponsible enough to just leave the key to a gun case just lying around where anyone could find it. I decided to check out the office on a lark just to give it a once over. The owner could have the key hidden in his office or something in there could be useful.

It was locked, that was something I had expected. I had a solution though, and its name was Mr. Smashy. I wedged my crowbar in between the door and the frame and used my weight to pry the sucker open and in doing so fell flat on my ass. I stood up holding my crowbar up in victory and came face to face with the undead owner of the store.

"Gahhhhhh!"

Before the thing could jump on me and eat my face, I heard a loud gunshot and it fell forward. As I backed away, still holding my breath and my crowbar, I could see the hole where a bullet had exited its skull. The thing started to do that speed decomposition and I looked behind me. Wesker was holding up a handgun, some sort of modified Beretta.

"Are you injured, Miss West?"

_Okay, he might be kind of a creep, but he is a sexy creep and he just saved my ass from being eaten or turning into one of those freaks so he really isn't that bad I guess. _

"Yeah, I was just startled. Startled, and almost eaten. Nice gun, is it custom?"

"Yes, it is. You are accustomed to handling firearms?"

"I have a membership card at my local shooting range and my grandfather made me learn how to clean and reload a gun before I got to learn how to fire one in middle school. Yes, you could say I know my way around a gun."

The gun storeowner had finished decomposing and all that was left was some bills and a small key. I picked up the key and put it in my pocket after using a few Kleenex to wipe it off. I turned and looked around the tiny office. I saw an unfinished last meal consisting of a sandwich and coffee. On his desk next to his meal was an unfamiliar looking potted green plant.

Trust me, it wasn't weed. I have seen weed, mainly because at the last family reunion, we realized my older cousin Theodora, who lives with my grandmother, was growing it in the backyard. My dad was the one who noticed it and angrily identified it. The highlights of the reunion were my cousin Roderick not keeping his bratty kid from sticking their gum in my hair, and someone in the family calling the cops on Theodora. It wasn't me, I swear. If I had done it, I would have waited until my parents and I had left the house. On the bright side, grandma got a few months in county for punching an officer of the law, which made her lay off of criticizing everyone for about half a year.

I was very surprised though, when Wesker started to examine and remove the plant, roots and all, from its pot.

"Um, what's with the plant?" I asked bemusedly, tilting my head to the side in confusion.

"This is a very valuable plant that is native to the city I used to work in. It's known for the fact that it relieves pain, speeds up the body's ability to regenerate, and boosts the body's immune system," Wesker said while holding it up for closer inspection.

"That sounds suspiciously like that really expensive health spray that Umbrella came out with a few years ago," I said offhandedly while digging through the office desk. "Hey, speak of the devil."

I held up the three, silver cans of health spray I had found in the bottom drawer of the old, beaten desk. "These will probably come in handy."

I slipped the cans of health spray into my backpack and also the unopened bottle of vodka that had been next to them. Wesker raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't make a comment. I got up off the ground and headed out of the office back to the front of the store. I pulled out the small key I had found in the owner's remains and tried it in the gun case's lock. It was a tough fit, and I had to jiggle the key a little, but it opened up the case. I immediately pulled out the shotgun I had seen earlier and checked chamber to make sure it wasn't loaded. I also grabbed a handgun that looked like one that my grandpa's army veteran friends used, taking time to make sure it was unloaded.

_So sue me. It's a gun safety thing._

I grabbed the ammo Wesker had set aside, picked up a good amount of shotgun shells and handgun bullets and shoved the lot of it into my backpack. Wesker stashed more of his gun's bullets in his pants and trench coat while I got holsters for my guns. I also pulled my black jacket out my backpack to make room for more ammunition. Anyway, more coverage and layers between me, and the jaws of an undead could only be a good thing.

I hefted my backpack up a few times to make sure that it wasn't too heavy for me to carry. It wasn't over my capacity to carry and the amount of ammunition would probably lessen over time and undead encounters. I attached Mr. Smashy to my backpack with a leather strap I had attached to my backpack. The crowbar made for a good melee weapon and who knew if I might need another locked door opened.

_Lock and load, baby! Watch out zombies, I'm armed and oh so dangerous._

I kept an eye out for any zombies that could be lurking and slipped out of the door, Wesker following right behind me. There were more moans from undead off in the distance and screams from people who were probably trying to survive. Unless I was mistaken, we and everyone else on the island part of the town were trapped here with the zombies.

Even though tomorrow was supposed to be a celebration for the anniversary of the town's founding, because of the date there were Halloween decorations everywhere. It made the fact that there were dead people roaming around attacking people somewhat mocking and surreal. It was like I had dropped into one of the cheesy horror movies that my grandfather, my uncle, and I liked to watch.

The sky was nearly pitch black with how many storm clouds were blocking out the sun. It had been merely overcast when I had arrived in the town. Now it seemed like nighttime even though it was only about four in the afternoon. This would make it harder to detect the undead in the surrounding area. The streetlights hadn't come on and the streets were dark and foreboding.

_Damn it! I should have grabbed a flashlight. _

Grinning paper jack o' lanterns and bats were everywhere. There was even a large statue of Frankenstein's monster outside one of the shops. There had been fake blood in one of the store windows when we had first passed by, but so many storefronts were bloody and flame-singed now, I wouldn't be able to pick it out of a lineup.

The number of undead had probably increased while we were in the gun store. There were dead bodies strewn about the street and I was making an effort to stay away from them. I had no way of knowing if they were dead-dead, or only mostly-dead. If they were dead-dead, then they were safe (for us), and the only thing to be worried about was the smell and looking through their pockets for loose change. The people who were dead-dead were those who had gotten a mercy kill or died before the undead had even gotten to them. However, if they were only mostly-dead, then they could be undead waiting to get the jump on us and infect and/or eat us.

Was I being paranoid? Probably, but then again, zombies aren't supposed to be real. I saw no reason to underestimate the things and every reason to play it safe. For example, Wesker and I were currently navigating our way through the back streets and alleyways of Morris' Point to avoid the undead that were swarming the main streets of the island. Wesker and I kept stumbling across more ammunition and other odd but useful things like hand grenades and spray cans of pesticide, just left on top of trash cans and dumpsters.

_I know that this is Texas, but this is insane. Who the hell leaves a bunch of hand grenades in an alley?_

The grenades were in my bag and the thing was starting to get very heavy. I slipped Mr. Smashy out of the leather strap and eased it onto my shoulder. I could hear some noise coming from the other side of the buildings and some moans coming up ahead. Wesker went a few feet ahead of me, his gun held pointed up in his leather-gloved hands. He hesitated at the intersection to the next alley. I was wondering what had made him stop but then I heard the moaning.

_That is the worst sound ever, and not just because it means that something is going to try to eat my face._

I peeked around the corner like Wesker had, and I saw the undead. There were three of them, slumped over a human corpse, stuffing their faces with what was left of the poor guy. I transferred Mr. Smashy to my left hand and pulled out the handgun I had holstered to my belt. I aimed my gun at the back of the zombie who was eating the poor dude's arm. I pulled the trigger, and the bullet went straight through the back of the skull into its brain. Wesker let off two bullets that quickly took out the other two zombies with headshots. I stared down at the body the undead had been eating.

I had heard the rumors about what had happened during Raccoon City. There had been stories about how the chief of police had gone insane, and of a hulking zombie in a trenchcoat carrying a rocket launcher. The stories that were coming to my mind however, were the ones of people that had been attacked by the undead, being bitten or scratched, and coming back to life as an undead. I holstered my gun and brought down my crowbar repeatedly on the dead man's head. The other bodies had finished doing the weird decomposition thing that I had come to expect by the time I was done turning the dead guy's head into paste. If this didn't stop him from becoming an undead, nothing would.

I stepped back from the body; gore dripping off of my crowbar. I looked back to see that Wesker was looking at me like I had grown another head.

"What? I didn't want him rising from the dead."

He seemed to acknowledge this and as he passed me, the sky started to open up. The slight sprinkling rain was leaving tiny spots of dampness on the alley's brick and concrete. The temperature seemed to drop about ten degrees in my mind and goosebumps broke out all over my body.

After Wesker went through the alley's exit he stopped and grit his teeth in frustration. I hurried to his side and saw what had put him on edge. A swarm of undead was slowly drawing near to where we were. I didn't feel comfortable fighting off the twenty to thirty undead in the crowd. I would probably die in that sort of conflict. Then I saw our way out of this mess across the street.

The blue neon sign of the aquarium glowed in the hazy drizzle and mist of the rain. The crowd of undead was coming closer and closer. The only way out of this that I could see was to get into the aquarium and blockade the heavy steel doors. The aquarium had no windows save for the large glass dome on top of the aquarium's butterfly garden. Unless the zombies could climb, we would be safe and could just make our way to one of the aquarium's fire exits.

I quietly pointed out the aquarium to Wesker I motioned to him that we run. At least I thought I did, he could have thought I had lost my mind and had decided to flail my arms around like an idiot. He did seem to the idea though.

I held up a hand with three fingers while I got into a sprinter's stance. 'On three' I mouthed to him.

I dropped my fingers on:

One

Two

Three fingers and we bolted for the aquarium's double doors. The undead horde began to moan but I barely registered them with the roar of adrenaline in my ears. We cleared the doors before the swarm of zombies came within thirty feet of the aquarium. We hurriedly flipped over a table and shoved it against the heavy metal double doors. I wedged a pipe between the door handles to keep them from opening and I took some time to breathe. We were safe.

_For now, at least. _

AN: Sorry about the green herb and pot joke but I couldn't resist.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Octopus's Garden

Disclaimer: I own nothing, save for Octavia "Canary" West.

We had just escaped a huge swarm of undead and we were currently catching our breath in the lobby of the Morris' Point Aquarium. The undead were either too stupid to have noticed us or they had given us up as a lost cause and had gone looking for an easier meal. In any case, it was also a relief too be out of the cold and wet of the rain. All of a sudden, I remembered a conversation that Wesker and I had had earlier in the day and I started to giggle. That eventually evolved into a full-blown cackle. Yes, I cackle when I laugh. I honestly don't laugh out loud that much in public because of the fact that I'm kind of self conscious about it. At the time though, I didn't care about my cackling or the fact that Wesker was looking at me like I had lost my mind.

"Look Wesker, we got to visit the aquarium after all!" I couldn't help but see the humor in this. We had gone to a diner for lunch, had an undead person attack the diner, and survived an explosion. We had also ransacked a gun store and fought a handful of undead persons for our lives. It had already been a long day and I had a very strong feeling that it was going to get much, much worse. The day had been hard and being able to laugh like that was helping me relieve not all, but a lot of the stress from the fear and tension.

_What did that book I read last month say? "Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." Huh, that is something that is perfectly applicable here and now. I'm going to quit letting this get to me and get through this._

I straightened back up from my bent over position on the floor and got my crowbar back into the strap on my backpack. I unholstered my handgun and started to survey the room Wesker and I were currently holed up in. The walls were painted a clear blue that complimented the sand colored tile that lined the floor. Red tweed couches and chairs were clustered around the large lobby of the aquarium. The place was pretty cluttered though. A section of wall had been opened up to work on what looked like some plumbing. There were some rather well done paintings of octopi… I mean octopuses… octopodes.

_What the hell is the plural form of octopus? _

In any case, immediately next to the impressionist painting of a blue octopus, there was the entrance to the aquarium proper; the doors wide open. I immediately got to work on my plan now that I had the lay of the room. The customer service desk next to the painting of a black octopus hiding in a diver's helmet had what I needed. The colorful maps of the aquarium were folded neatly and stacked on the hard acrylic desk. I grabbed two of them and began to unfold one ignoring the thumps coming from the front entrance of the aquarium lobby. I spread out the map and began to take off my jacket, tying it around my waist so I could have better mobility.

From what I could tell from reading the map spread out all over the customer service desk with Wesker leaning over my shoulder, there were three fire exits and one service entrance located in the aquarium. The service entrance was probably our best bet for a safe exit. There might even be a van that the aquarium used for transporting supplies parked there.

"If we want to get out of here safely, we should leave through the service exit."

"The fire exits are much closer than the service entrance."

"The fire exits are also wired to set off the fire alarms if they're opened, which will draw every undead in the vicinity right to us. Also, I doubt that the undead can open car doors or break through the side of a van, so it'll be safer and more importantly, quicker than getting out of the town proper on foot."

"Good point."

The doors to the rest of the aquarium were wide open and as we entered I closed the doors, trying not to think of what we had left waiting outside the building.

The doors led to what the plaque above the door said was the Tidepool Room. The Tidepool Room was made up to look like a rocky beach area with craggy, fake brown rock lining the walls and floor making benches and framing the fish tanks. The tank closest to us held the spherical, spiny bodies of sea urchins. The purple-black creatures were motionless, save for the occasional twitch of one of their pointed spines. In another tank, I could see a group of orange, red, and red-violet sea stars. The bench in front of the sea star tank was stained with blood that so fresh that some of it was still red and wet looking pooled in the cushion.

_This is very, very bad; this means that there are undead here._

As soon as we walked by another bench, a grayish hand suddenly shot out from behind and grabbed onto my ankle. I fell to the floor and pulled my gun from its holster and aimed it at the face of the undead holing on to my ankle. One gunshot and I could scramble away from the decomposing corpse. I swept over the room with my eyes, breathing heavily, searching for any undead that could be lurking anywhere else in the room.

The undead had grabbed me by my pant leg, so it hadn't scratched me and it didn't have the chance to bite me. I could have kicked myself the aquarium's doors had been wide open when Wesker and I had made our dash for safety. The doors to the rest of the aquarium had been open. Why hadn't I thought of the possibility that there could be undead in here?

Looking around the room I thought back to what I had heard about the Raccoon City. From what I had heard, whatever virus had brought the city to its knees wasn't limited to just humans. This was pretty odd in it's own right. Most diseases tend to be limited to certain species. It is actually pretty rare for diseases to cross the species gap but it happens. For example, the only animals that suffer from leprosy are human beings and armadillos. Yes, I'm perfectly serious; we share a disease with armadillos.

Moving on, in addition to humans becoming undead, there were also reports of dogs rising from the dead along with birds and even cockroaches. I had also heard tall tales about scaly green gorillas that ripped people to shreds. There were multiple reports of skinless monsters with claws that killed people with their sharp pointed tongues and crawled on ceilings. There were also reports of animals that had grown to enormous sizes like spiders and moths that had started to hunt humans. There was even one report about a giant crocodile that had almost eaten some people and another about a giant man-eating millipede in the graveyard. My main source about the outbreak had spoken of the infection of all the zoo animals, especially how they still had nightmares about the undead elephant. The rumors about giant sized shark sightings around Raccoon University had also been widespread.

_Lets hope that thing was the only kind of, if not the only undead in the building._

Wesker and I had just walked past the tank containing a number of hermit crabs when I had noticed something sparkling on the bench in front of the brightly colored anemone tank. It was lying on top of a newspaper that seemed to have been carelessly thrown away. I picked up the sparkling trinket and examined it. It was a golden disc, like a medallion, that had a black jewel carved to look like an octopus set in the center. It seemed like the black jewel might be an onyx and the detail on the medallion seemed like something that would be found in an ancient Greek temple.

_Oooooh, fancy!_

I stuck the weird little trinket in my backpack, if anything I now had a neat little souvenir for when I survived. Wesker raised his eyebrows a bit but said nothing, as usual.

The next room was dominated by a massive fishtank that took up an entire wall from ceiling to floor. The graceful figures of manta rays and spotted eagle rays floated and glided in the water. Unfortunately, there was also an undead that tried to vomit on us as soon as we entered the room. Wesker shot and killed the thing but not before I got a nasty acid burn on my left arm. I don't favor one arm over the other but acid burns hurt pretty freaking bad to say the least. Trust me, the stomach acid ate through my shirt.

_Owshitdamnhellfuckthathurtslikeabitch!_

I sat down in front of the smaller tank that held a few different species of ray than the ones in the larger tank. I pulled out one of the leaves of the "Green Herb" that Wesker had taken from the gun store. We had found a few other plants during our skulk through the alleys, one in someone's window box and the other in a potted plant found outside the backdoor of a stripclub. Trust me, the only thing worse than a zombie is a scantily clad zombie trying to jump on you and tear your throat out with it teeth.

"I just eat one of these and the pain will go away", I asked with a pained grimace.

"I would actually recommend that you eat the whole plant after grinding it up to get the most of its healing effects" Wesker smoothly informed me while messing around with what looked like a red version of the plant I held in my hand.

"Really, okay. Bottoms up."

I can now state with certainty that "Green Herb" tastes like a cross between okra and black licorice with a minty aftertaste. For the record, I hate okra because it has the same taste and consistency of nylon stockings and licorice is pretty much my least favorite candy. The aftertaste was okay but weird. The herb did work pretty quickly though, and I didn't feel any pain in my arm but I could still use it. It even helped with the pain from my road rash and the bruises from hitting the pavement because of the explosion. It helped to remember that my grandfather tended to say that if a medicine tastes horrible, it's probably working just fine.

_Why else would hospital food taste so bad?_

"So, what kind of plant is that you're holding?"

"This is a Red Herb. It can cure poison."

"Poison? What kind? Neurotoxins, hemotoxins, opioids, or is it for alcohol poisoning?"

_What? My last boyfriend was working towards a medical degree with a serious interest in poisons and how to cure them. There is no such thing as a cure for all poisons. Different poisons have different cures and the wrong antidote for a poison can do nothing at all or cause some serious harm. Fun fact: never suck out the poison from rattlesnake bites. If you do you'll just poison yourself._

While Wesker ground up the rest of our useful healing plants and informed me of their use (apparently Red Herbs work very well on animal and plant based poisons which makes about as much sense as me eating my own pants), I unwrapped and ate some of my taffy and waited for my wound to finish healing. I looked down at the informational plaque at the bottom of the tank I was leaning against. Apparently the rays that were in this tank were from the torpedo genus of fish, which sounded pretty awesome. I tossed some taffy to Wesker after asking if he was hungry.

I checked my gun and reloaded it, taking care to clean the barrel with the gun maintenance kit I had swiped from the gun store. When I was done I checked on my arm and I was shocked. Not only was the pain gone, but also there wasn't a trace of any damage from the stomach acid besides the fact that I had lost a few freckles. I was seriously impressed. I got up to my feet and took the ground up herbs that Wesker handed me and stuck them in a pocket on my purse.

"This stuff really does work. It's like my arm wasn't burned at all."

"Of course. Would I lie to you?" Then Wesker had a sort of pained tremor go through his upper body.

"Hell, are you okay?"

"I think the unfortunate explosion on the pier managed to aggravate an old injury."

"Crap, do you need some health spray or something? Do need to rest for a bit?"

"No, I'll be fine. Thank you for your concern though dear heart", he said somewhat flirtingly.

"Uh, no problem. And hey, don't call me that" I grated out with a slight blush.

_Is he trying to hit on me?_

The jellyfish room was the next room in the aquarium and unlike the other rooms; it was only lit by the barest man-made illumination. It only the hazy glow of the deadly, yet elegant creatures that resided within this room more prevalent. If there hadn't been an infestation of undead roaming around the island, I could have stayed and watched the poisonous beauties for hours.

I immediately saw three undead shuffling around the room, one of them vomiting bile onto the floor. I aimed and shot at the undead that was vomiting, but only managed to hit it in the chest. It lurched towards me hands extended, before I nailed it in the head with a bullet round. Meanwhile, Wesker killed the other undead with a headshot through the nose as soon as he went through the door. I immediately aimed my gun at the last undead, getting a clean shot in between the thing's eyes.

_I am not going to get barfed on again! Once was bad enough._

After that the undead started to decompose, and I thought back to the acid burn I had gotten not even an hour earlier. Regular stomach acid wasn't powerful enough to burn me like it had burned my arm. My hypothesis was the virus that was bringing the infected back to life, was possibly changing the digestive system. The potency of the stomach acid could possibly mean that the bodies of the undead needed to break down their food much faster than a non-infected person. Maybe part of the disease that had spread through the town rapidly sped up the metabolism. That would make the ridiculously fast decomposition I had been seeing make sense.

_And now I was making useless conjecture without decent proof. Again. I really need to quit doing that. It's going to get me in trouble on of these days. What am I saying? I'm in a real life zombie attack! If that doesn't count as trouble, nothing does. _

As we made our way through the room, I spotted a door between the Moon Jellyfish Tank and the Box Jellyfish tank. There was a silver plate on the door with a very similar looking fish emblem. I stopped and rummaged around in my pockets for the silver key I had gotten off of the second undead that had jumped us today. The design on the key was an exact match down to every last detail to the design on the door.

_You have got to be kidding me. What are the chances?_

"Hey Albert, remember that key I got off of that undead guy that tried to eat our faces? I think I found the door it goes to", I said, holding the old-fashioned key up so he could see.

"Albert? You're calling me by my given name now?"

"Do you not want me to use it", I queried while using the key to unlock the door.

"Please continue, in fact I rather like you using my name."

The office was a cluttered mess, to say the least. There were papers thrown everywhere all over the desk and several wadded paper balls piled in and around the wastebasket. There were several notices about making sure the water bill was being paid and a pink slip for some guy named John Smith.

_Sucks to be him._

On a whim, I picked up the phone from its cradle and tried to dial the police. I didn't even get a dial tone. Great, which meant that the phone lines were down and there wouldn't be any communication between the island and the mainland. I slammed the phone back into the cradle and that's when I saw the bulletin board next to the door.

The thing was pretty bare except for one note:

WARNING:

The Octopus door has been closed in order to protect the rest of the aquarium from the shark tank infestation. In case of an emergency, The keys have been scattered throughout the aquarium with the Onyx Crest in the Tidepool Room. The Aquamarine Crest can be found in the Penguin Exhibit. The Garnet Crest is in the Seahorse Room near the Leafy Sea Dragon tank. The Spinel Crest is located near the Clownfish Tank in the Tropical Fish Room. The Topaz Crest is in the Otter exhibit. The crest sequence is the same as it always is.

Do not open the door. The Neptunes have managed to get into the main shark tank and have already decimated the tank's shark population. The tanks are still intact but it is unlikely they will hold indefinitely. They aggressively attack anything in their line of sight and have repeatedly rammed the sides of the tank trying to eat aquarium employees. We don't need a biohazard incident let alone the water damage from flooding the broken shark tank would cause.

Contact Umbrella immediately for capture and clean-up! 

Right next to the bulletin board was a key hook with a set of car keys under the label of "TRANSPORT VAN".

_Yay! Now I won't have to try and waste time trying to hotwire the damn thing. Hey, what the hell is a Neptune? Somehow, I doubt that they're talking about an ancient god of the sea. Hmm, sounds dangerous. If anything Umbrella was involved with something here, so I better keep the note. Evidence is a wonderful thing._

I showed the keys to Wesker and then stuck them in my pocket along with the note.

"Looks like we have a ride out of here."

The next room that was connected to the jellyfish room was a circular room with several tanks of various sizes set into the wall. I had learned from earlier and had started to emulate what Albert had been doing.

_I mean, who has had all the close encounters of the undead kind? Not him. It isn't bad luck either; I've just been reckless and impulsive. I need to be more cautious. _

I had peered around the doorframe on the side, couching down low while Albert took the high ground. We quickly picked of the four undead that had been in the room, taking our time to inspect what the rotting corpses had left behind. The only thing left was some ammo that was compatible with Albert's gun and some handgun bullets.

Curving around the room was a sort of art deco sculpture of a giant octopus; which was appropriate given the tentacled denizens of the room. The oddest thing about the room besides Octozilla, was the fact that when I consulted the map I had taken from the customer service desk, the door that would lead us to the service entrance was missing. Upon double-checking the map, the exhibit that connected the Octopus Room and the service entrance was the Shark Exhibit.

_Of course it was. It's not like _

The doorway that was blocked by a solid sheet of metal that had no keyhole that I could discern. Then I looked up and saw the four empty slots and one filled with a medallion like the one I had found in the Tidepool Room.

"Damn it!"

I pulled out the medallion I had found from my backpack. They were both made of gold and had a carved octopus set into it. The one above the door had a yellow-brown jewel. If I went by the note, this was probably the Topaz Crest. The crest I was holding was supposedly the Onyx Crest. That left three more of these things to find and fit into the door. Then we had to figure out the combination of how the crests fit into the door.

The only other open door in the Octopus Room was the Tropical Fish Room. The Tropical Fish Room was an explosion of color and motion. Fish of every color and shape flitted around the fake coral reefs. There was a tank of many different species of angelfish positioned right between the tank of striped beakfish and the tank full of butterfly fish. I could see the orange and white of the clownfish tank at the far end of the room. If this had been a normal aquarium, this wouldn't be a problem. As it was, there were about five zombies near the center of the room in a sort of crowd. I felt the corners of my lips twitch up in a mad smirk. I gently tugged Albert's sleeve to get him to move back and I pulled a grenade from the pocket of the jacket tied around my waist. I pulled the pin and pitched the grenade with a mad giggle right into the center of the group of undead. I ducked behind the tank full of red and white lionfish before the explosive went off and the immediate area where the undead were was covered in the entrails of the undead, shattered glass, and water along with flopping fish. Peeking my head around the tank, I could see that only one zombie was still moving, and the explosion had taken out its legs. Four out of five undead wasn't bad, but I unloaded a bullet into its head to finish the job.

_I don't care what anyone says, explosions are fun and useful. I would also like to thank the lunatic who left these babies on top of a recycling bin. _

After Albert grabbed the pink-jeweled crest from the bench in front of the clownfish tank, I took out the map to check where we needed to go next. The Tropical Fish Room split off into two rooms in addition to the Octopus Room: The Penguin Room and the Seahorse Room. What we were doing was taking too long. I didn't think we were making good enough time on this but I wasn't going to break one of the horror movie survival rules. Splitting up is always a bad idea in a survival situation.

"I think we should split up to cover more ground. The faster we get out of here, the faster we can get to safety."

I did a mental jaw drop at Albert's question. Bad idea, very bad idea!

"Okay, I'll take the Penguin Room. Do you want to take the Seahorse Room?"

_Bad mouth, stupid mouth! Why are you trying to get me killed?_

"That is acceptable. Take care, Miss West."

I watched Albert walk into the Seahorse room before making my way into the Penguin room. The Penguin Room was one of the biggest draws to the aquarium for tourism. It's kind of a given that the black and white birds are one of the animals that most people can agree are cute. Coca-Cola uses them for their holiday advertising for a reason.

_Dammit, now I'm thirsty._

The penguins were isolated from the rest of the aquarium by the large glass enclosure that separated the birds from the tourists; made up of four walls, and a metal roof painted to look like the night sky. The only way in to the penguin habitat was a door set in the very back of the enclosure that was kept tightly locked and only accessible from the staff and maintenance area.

The penguins were penguining around, swimming in their pool, hopping on rocks, and making loud squawking noises. They didn't look infected in any way or form, but I didn't need to go into the habitat anyway. I didn't see any undead but I had my gun pointed up and at the ready. I also couldn't smell the undead, if there were any in the room the smell of decay was covered up by the penguin's stench. Trust me, the little tuxedo birds are cute but they smell like rotting fish and bird crap.

There was a sparkle coming from around the raised pedestal holding realistic scale models of male penguins keeping their eggs warm. I lightly stepped towards the models and saw an Octopus Crest with a light blue jewel at the feet of the Rockhopper Penguin model. I grabbed the trinket and began to back away, when suddenly a decaying gray arm came from behind the other side of the models trying to bat at me through the fake penguins. It startled me into dropping the crest but I unloaded two bullets into its brain.

I picked up the Aquamarine Crest off of the floor and stuck it into my backpack alongside the Onyx Crest. I surveyed the room and other than a soda machine that was plugged into the wall opposite to the penguins, I saw nothing that caught my eyes. I made my way towards the soda machine and put enough money in for two bottles of water. I tossed them into my backpack. That's when I saw something shiny hanging out over the top of the soda machine. I pulled it off and found another key except this one had a shark fin on it.

_What is it with this town and leaving stuff lying around in random places? This is an obsessive compulsive's worst nightmare! Then again, the dead have come back to life and are dead set on spreading the condition around. Dead set, oh hell, bad pun!_

I carefully made my way towards the Octopus room, avoiding the undead entrails and broken glass. There weren't any more undead, all the dead bodies in here were fully motionless or in resting in pieces. As I moved towards the door I heard something making crunching noises in the water and broken glass. I swung around and pointed my gun at whatever was coming towards me. It was a good thing I didn't shoot because it was Albert.

"For the good reason of not scaring me to death, can you please avoid giving me a heart attack and say something next time?"

"I apologize. I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine. I just don't want to accidentally shoot you!"

We could hear the thunder from the storm outside when we got back inside of the Octopus Room, and I pulled out my two crests from my backpack along with a bottle of water for Albert. Albert got his two crests from his brown trenchcoat. There were five slots in the door, the very last one occupied by the yellow Topaz Crest. Now that I was looking at all the octopus crests I think I could remember something similar in the lobby. The lobby had had some paintings, each one having a different colored octopus as a focal point.

If I went by the order of the paintings in the lobby; maybe that would be the code to opening this ridiculous roadblock if I could remember them correctly. That means that the first slot would be the Spinel Crest because of the painting of a pink octopus making an ink cloud. The Aquamarine Crest would be next because of the painting of a blue octopus on the left side of the main aquarium entrance. Then the Garnet Crest after that, because of the painting of a red octopus in a shipwreck on the other side of the entrance. Second to the last would be the Onyx Crest because of the painting by the Customer Service desk. Last of all would be the Topaz crest, already in its place in the door.

I placed the crests in the door in the order I remembered. As soon as I placed the last crest in its slot, the door began to open.

AN: The book that Canary quoted is Dune by Frank Herbert. This chapter was made under the influence of a Glee marathon on Netflix, several shark and alligator movies on the Syfy network, and Finding Nemo. Reviews are always welcome.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Mack The Knife

Disclaimer: Again, I own nothing, nada, zip, zilch except for Octavia "Canary" West.

The door finished opening and Albert and I immediately hugged the doorframe, holding our guns up at the ready. I couldn't see any undead and I didn't smell anything other than fish and saltwater. The only sounds I could hear was the bubbles and hum from the filtration device in the giant tank. The tank was dim like it was the bottom of a coral reef at night.

"Do you know why this part of the aquarium was closed off," Albert inquired.

"Yeah, the note in the office that was about the door being closed, said something about Neptunes or something or other getting in and eating the actual residents of the tank. Which is really weird, I mean, what can eat a shark and still fit in a tank?"

I didn't see his face but I could have sworn he clenched his fist tighter around his gun and his body tensed up.

The inside of the shark room was mostly made up of the gigantic tank that surrounded the walkway. The walkway was a tube enclosed on all sides by the glass of the tank. The sides of the tube had the occasional wooden bench against the metal, lower part of the reinforced glass tube. I could just imagine sitting there and watching all the graceful predators of the deep gliding overhead for at least an hour. That would be impossible however, and not just because of the undead on the island.

The tank as far as I could see was empty, which was odd. The tank was full to the top with water. There were the usual underwater plants and fake coral for ambiance. There was also fine white sand at the bottom of the tank, hiding the concrete foundation. Someone had even gotten fancy, and had put in some fancy looking roman columns and statues that were cracked and ancient looking, that made the shark habitat look like a sunken temple. However the true emptiness of the tank was the lack of life.

As I made my way inside the room, I could see a few indistinct shapes at the far end of the tank, but what grabbed my attention were the white objects at the bottom of the tank. If I didn't know any better I would say they were bone and the bits of flesh clinging to them would suggest that. However the set of pointed jaws a foot away let me know that it was cartilage on the bottom of the tank and that Albert and I had a problem.

All of a sudden, the massive, bullet shaped, slate gray head of a gigantic shark slammed itself against the glass wall of the tank next to me. It didn't break through the glass, but it left a small, jagged looking crack. I came very close to losing control of my bowels and backed away out of the shark's line of sight, looking terrified, as I looked for any more sharks. I went straight back to hugging the doorframe to keep as far away from the humongous and aggressive beast, keeping myself in the Octopus Room.

Peering around the corner, I could see the monster that had terrified me and it was truly massive. It could have easily been fifteen feet, from tail to snout. I could also see where patches in the scarred skin had either fallen off; or had the skin ripped as it had grown to such an enormous size? The pupils of its eyes were a milky white instead of the usual black you would see in a shark's eye or any eye for that matter. The teeth were multiple points of dingy white in a grayish black mouth.

_Dammit, they just had to make an undead shark, didn't they? What happened? Did someone just get up one morning and decide that there wasn't anything creepy or deadly enough in the water? They were wrong, very wrong! Have they ever heard of the goblin shark? Or was this for a Bond villain's evil moat? Were piranhas and regular sharks not badass or terrifying enough for you? _

I didn't think the situation could get any worse. Then I saw the other giant undead shark. It was just as large and undead as the one that had rammed the tank. I wanted to sit down and cry like a baby that had had its candy taken away. I couldn't believe that there were two of them.

_Where's Martin Brody when you need him?_

The note I had found in the office had mentioned something called Neptunes. Is that what these things were? The displays that I could see showed the different kinds of shark that had been kept in the gigantic tank. Tiger sharks, bull sharks, shortfin mako sharks, whitetip reef sharks, blue sharks, all of these sharks and more had lived in the massive tank. The only things that could have led to the deaths of all these predators could be the two massive undead sharks hungrily swimming around the tank. I could see more clumps of cartilage, flesh, and bone throughout the tank, at least where I could see. If I poked my head out even further, I could see the half decomposing head and chest of a human being

Yep, they killed everything that had lived in the tank, some poor schmuck who had probably gotten too close, and if they broke through the glass, Albert and I were next on the menu.

I looked all around my general vicinity for something, anything that could help us and when I looked up, I hit pay dirt. There was a copper colored trapdoor hatch just outside the entryway into the Octopus Room on the ceiling. Even more interesting was the fact that it had the same shark fin design as the key I had found on top of the vending machine in the Penguin Room. It was fairly high up due to the high ceilings of the aquarium, but I had a way around that. It was official, I had a plan.

_Good observational skills could not be more valuable in emergency situations like these. Thank you, my crazy prepared grandfather with military veteran friends. Thank you, for making me do a test run for all those obstacle courses you make for shits and giggles. Thank you, for taking horror movies WAY too seriously and making me join in on the MST3K style commentary and making plans for if we ever ended up living out one of the scenarios from the aforementioned horror movies. I will however state that the plan based on Day of the Triffids is way too contrived. I mean, when are we ever going to find mobile poisonous plants? Then again, going on what I heard about what happened in Raccoon City…_

"Albert, can you give me a boost to that hatch?"

"Do you have a key or are you going to just try picking the lock with on of your hairpins?"

"As a matter of fact, I do have a key and I am fairly certain it will fit that lock, mostly because they have the same insignia," I said holding up the copper colored key.

"Where did you find that? Do you just pick up everything you see?"

"Not really, but as it turns out, emergency situations apparently give me some magpie-like tendencies. I found it in the Penguin Room while I was getting our water from a vending machine. I figured the bottled water would be safe from infection because it was sealed. I ended up finding it half hanging off the edge of the vending machine after I got the water."

"What do you think you are you going to do up there anyway?"

"Look, trying to get past those things without them trying to break through the tank to get to us is not going to happen. I figure there's going to be some machinery or something to monitor the sharks when there aren't highly aggressive mutants in there. There might even be some tranquilizers for when the veterinarians need to treat the normal sharks. I figure that electrocution or maybe an overdose of tranquilizers will put them down for good. Hell, if I can drain the tank from up there, we can get through here that way. Any way we can stop them from flooding the area and then eating us is a good idea. Look, you got more of that explosion on the docks than I did. Don't lie; I can see how you're holding yourself like you're in pain. Why don't you wait down here and catch your breath while I get these overgrown tuna take care of, okay?"

Albert put his hands together to give me a boost up to unlock the trapdoor, only giving me support until I had gotten my grip. I hooked my hands on the top of the doorframe and I swung my legs up to cling to the top of the doorframe. I looked like an oddly colored, soot covered, blood spattered, sloth. As I fiddled with the lock and key with my left hand, I kept a tight grip on the handle of the trapdoor. The trapdoor swung open and a short ladder about three feet long dropped down. I grabbed the second to last rung of the ladder and started to pull myself up the ladder. I was running on adrenaline, and I was weighed down by my backpack but I didn't go to West Africa to cover a war zone with a noodle-armed, wimp body. I had put myself through a rigorous workout leading up to that assignment, and the fact that I had survived without any major injuries proved that it had been a sound decision. When I had gotten back from West Africa, I hadn't stopped working on keeping my body as close to my peak physical fitness as I could, mainly because I never knew when something might happen. I pulled myself up quickly, rung by rung until I pulled my feet through the trapdoor.

"Yell if you need anything," I called down to Albert. "I'll try to get this done as quickly as possible so we can get the hell out of here."

The trapdoor had just as I had hoped, led into an area devoted to the care and maintenance of the original denizens of the tank below my feet. At the far end of the tank, I could see a tranquilizer gun hanging on the wall and various pieces of machinery were lit up with electricity. There was a cloying smell of rotten meat due to the open cooler full of fish that had been left here for who knows how long. The floor beneath my feet was made of industrial grade steel, which cut off about three feet on front of me. The rest of the room was water until you hit the other side of the tank where there was another sturdy metal floor. The only connection between the two sides of the room was an unstable looking catwalk, hanging from the ceiling about a foot above the water level thanks to cables attached to the ceiling. The catwalk had no rails or fences to keep people from falling in by accident. It was basically a long swinging metal plank that I did not trust to support my weight.

_No way in hell is this place OSHA approved. That stupid jeweled crest lock system and the serious lack of safety railing is insane. Did the people who built and maintained this place have a grudge against safety, sanity, and common sense?_

I gently eased myself onto the catwalk and had a small heart attack when the soft creak from me adding my weight echoed through the room. I stepped lightly and steadily across the catwalk making sure not to make any sudden moves. Even though my heart was pounding in my ears I took my time, hoping that I didn't make any more noise.

I was trying and failing to keep both sharks where I could see them. The less I lost sight of them, the less of a chance the sharks had of getting the drop on me. I could see the dorsal fin of one of the sharks on the other side of the tank. Due to the quality of the lighting, I had lost track of the other one swimming around in the deep. I grabbed onto one of the cables keeping the catwalk held aloft to help me keep my balance as I made my way across this rickety metal deathtrap.

_Where the hell is the other shark?_

All of a sudden, the catwalk lurched to one side with a clang, and it was all I could do to hold onto the cable and keep my feet on the catwalk. The damn shark that I had lost track of had rammed the bottom of the catwalk to try and knock me into the water.

_Now I know the poor bastard at the bottom of the tank came face to face with his maker. With a splish, splash, crunch, gurgle, and a snap._

"Are you alright?"

"I'm wishing a slow, painful death on anyone who had a hand in building this place, but I'm fine. One of the damn sharks almost got me but I'm going to kill both of them if it's the last damn thing I do. Trust me Albert, when I say that if I'm three things; I'm fast, determined, and above all else, lucky."

_Damn straight. Who else but me, would stumble across fragmentation grenades in a back alley?_

I kept both of the mutant sharks in my line of sight as I made my way across the rest of the catwalk. I saw a fin duck out of sight and dashed to the next cable, gripping it with both hands and wrapping a leg around the taut wire cord. Before I could get my other leg secured, the catwalk jerkily swung upwards and came down with a hard rattle.

The massive great white shark then heaved its head onto the side of the catwalk, trying to snap its jaws onto my leg and yank me under the water. I swung my free leg back, and snap kicked it in the gills when I had a clear shot. It slid off of the catwalk and sunk back into the water of the tank.

I finally made it to the wonderful solid metal floor of the opposite side. I was heavily breathing, and I wanted to die. I asked myself if this whole nightmare was really worth it.

_Yes, yes it is. Now go kick obscenely large amounts of undead shark tail and get out of here._

The tranquilizer gun was hanging on the wall and easily accessible. Unfortunately, it was unloaded and the rounds for the gun were nowhere to be found.

The tranquilizer rounds for the gun were probably in the medical supply cabinet. The supply cabinet was at the right end of the floor I was on past a work desk, which to be perfectly honest was ridiculous. How the heck could they get the various pieces of furniture across the tank, even in regular conditions? They would have to drain the tank every time they got some new piece of equipment or a cabinet or something or other.

I had carefully walked across the floor to the supply cabinet, when an undead crawled from underneath the desk behind me. It had no legs and was only supported its arms. I used the cabinet door to temporarily stun it and knock it backwards onto its back. I firmly planted my foot on the thing's chest to keep it from struggling or getting back up.

The cabinet had several jars of tranquilizer fluid but I couldn't see any rounds for the gun anywhere. There was also a handy little reference sheet on what to dosage to give the normal sharks. I ignored it other than to take into account what kind of dosage the biggest of the normal sharks got and mentally tripling the amount. The dosage that amounted to was just a hair short of a full jar. I used my knife to poke a few holes in the top of the jar. Looking down at the undead pinned underneath my size ten sneaker, I began to put my plan together.

The undead's gaping mouth made a nice cranny to put the large canister of tranquilizer liquid and the jar made a nice gag. The jar was small enough to cram in the undead's mouth with a nice amount of force but too large for the undead to work out by itself. I could see the fin of one of the sharks heading straight for me so I hoisted up the undead by the back of its shirt. When the shark was close enough, I threw the struggling corpse into the wide-open jaws of the leviathan-esque menace.

_I really hope I don't go to hell for doing that. _

The shark that now had a belly full of dead guy and enough tranquilizers to kill several sharks swan around for a while, and started to slowly calm down. It made sense that the drugs would take a while to kick in and it would probably be a while before the "Neptune" overdosed.

_Forget that. We are not calling it a name taken from the roman god of the sea. That would be giving it too much credit. It's just a couple of giant mutant undead sharks that have been trying to kill you from the very moment you walked in here. _

All of a sudden, I noticed that I had lost track of the other shark and it shot out of the water at the catwalk. It clamped down on the side of the swaying platform and shook its head like an angry dog trying to rip a rope toy out of its owner's hands. The cables holding the catwalk attached to the ceiling began to snap from the strain from the weight of the shark. The shark finally gave up trying to pull the whole thing down, but by that time, the end of the catwalk closest to me was half submerged and much more unstable than it had been when I first climbed up the trapdoor. There was no way I would be able to walk back across it to the other side.

It was personal now. The thing had just stranded me on the bad side of the tank. I certainly didn't think it deserved any mercy after that little stunt. There was a computer on top of the desk on the left side of the supply cabinet.

The screen was on the screensaver; I moved the mouse around looking for any information on how to drop the water level in the tank. I ended up stumbling across the remote drainage protocols. I clicked the button to start draining the tank and started to (badly) sing a song that was completely inappropriate in celebration.

_They do not call me Canary because I can sing._

i belted out about half of Mack the Knife while i got down to business.

While I was singing, I went off and found a nice machine that I didn't know the purpose of, with a very long power cord and pushed it towards the edge where the floor dropped off into the shark tank. The water was now at the half full point and the drugged shark was almost motionless. The shark that had stranded me was running out of water to maneuver around in and it knew it. It was thrashing around like a toddler having a tantrum; only the toddlers I have seen cannot usually eat a man in one gulp.

_Drugged to the gills, hee hee! I slay me._

The machine was heavy, bulky, and would probably hurt if it were dropped on somebody or something. In other words, it was the perfect "toaster" for this oversized bathtub. The shark that wasn't drugged to its gills was speedily making its way back towards me and was probably going to try and leap up at me. In fact, I was hoping it would.

When the shark had had leapt up me to try and take a bite out me, I kicked the machine into its face, knocking it straight back down into the drink. As soon as the duo of machine and shark hit the water, there was an explosion of sparks and arcing electricity. The serious threat of Albert or me getting eaten by sharks

_Ooohh, the competitor executed a perfect leap into the air, but has tragically failed to stick the dismount. Ladies and gentleman, I think he's going to have to settle for the bronze._

I needed to get back across to the other side. Swimming was not a viable option in the first place due to the growing lack of water and what water that was in the tank was still electrified. The catwalk was still out because of the shark's displeasure with my ability to cross the room made its mark. The way the catwalk was hanging, it would be impossible for me to make the jump without sliding off and possibly crippling myself for what would be my very short life. I looked around and I saw a long pipe hanging parallel to the catwalk.

_That could work. My spirit animal must be a sloth or a monkey because this kind of situation keeps happening to me. Okay, super sloth powers activate!_

I used the desk as a boost up to grab the pipe and use the leverage to get my feet up and hooked over the pipe, but not before making sure to pocket a disk I found that said NEPTUNE DEVELOPMENT & RESEARCH. I mean there was no way I was leaving without proof that somebody cough-Umbrella-cough, was working on bio-organic weapons.

_Actually, scratch that. Bio and organic mean the same damn thing, having them both in a phase makes it redundant. From now on, I'm calling them bioweapons. That makes much more sense._

While I was having my mental rant about grammatical redundancy, I was making my way along the pipe upside down like a sloth, keeping my weight evenly distributed like a sloth, and not giving much of a damn like a sloth.

_Okay, I really need to quit thinking about sloths._

I needed to make sure that the pipe didn't get dislodged from the wall because if I put all my weight in one place, the pipe could become unstable and fall.

When I tilted my head back to see how far I was getting I saw Albert staring at me through the glass in disbelief. I finally made it to the other side and let my legs drop first to make sure I wasn't going to fall on my head and crack it open like a watermelon at a Gallagher show; and also to make sure I didn't fall into the empty fish tank that had dead, mutant sharks in it. I fell from the pipe with a three-point landing. Sure I would never qualify for the Olympics but I was still alive and no longer stranded on the other end of the tank.

I climbed down the trapdoor ladder and dropped down the rest of the way when I ran out of ladder rungs. I straightened up from the crouch I had landed in and grinned at Albert who was perched on top of one of the giant bronze octopus statue's giant tentacles.

"Are you okay? There weren't any undead while I was gone were there?"

"Everything was fine. I do have to say I'm impressed with how well you did up there."

"Meh, I worked with what I had available. You ready to go?"

"Of course, after you dear heart."

"Ugh, do you really need to call me that?"

We made our way through the glass tunnel, without having to be afraid of killer undead sharks or imminent flooding. I still kept my gun at the ready though. After all, just because the sharks were gone didn't mean that all the undead were. I mean, it would be embarrassing if I had taken down those undead sharks while keeping my cool, only for me to immediately get eaten by one of the undead that had been human.

The tank had been fully drained of water by now and I could now see what I hadn't been able to find on the damp sand of the tank's bottom. Flattening my arms and face against the glass, I could see the box of reusable tranquilizer rounds lying innocently on its side, against a statue of either Poseidon or Neptune sitting and holding a trident. In the statue's lap there was what looked like the bloody, half-eaten leg of a human being.

_No wonder I couldn't find the cartridges for the gun. Well, at least now I know why my improvised shark bait didn't have a leg to stand on_. _I'm guessing the shark got his legs and couldn't be bothered to eat both. _

I got off of the wall and moved on through the glass tunnel. We really couldn't afford to lose any more time than we already had. The end of the tunnel through the shark tank led into the Amazon River exhibit. The door that would let us into the maintenance area for the service exit was located between the Arapaima and Piranha tanks. I didn't have the key to this door and I tried the other two keys, but they wouldn't work. I pulled out a grenade from my backpack and motioned for Albert to come join me behind the Electric Eel tank for cover. I was really starting to feel better than I had earlier, mainly because of the fact that I had survived so far and the fact that I would have four more grenades left after I used this one. Albert made a motion like he was rolling his eyes, and just went and shot the lock off.

But-but-but, I wanted to blow the door up. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

We carefully walked inside the maintenance area. The place was abandoned and the only noise that could be heard was the muffled moaning coming from the security guard station. Screens showing live camera feeds from all over the Aquarium were positioned all along the walls of the small square room and what the screen closest to me showed made my blood run cold.

All around the outside of the service entrance was a large crowd of undead, comprised of about ten shuffling and moaning corpses between us and our ticket out of here. The metal sheet that separated the crowd from Albert and me seemed like it was paper thin to me. The distance from the

I took the time to count the undead in the area. If I was going to do the stupid idea that had just popped into my head, I was going to need to know how many dead people I would need to kill. I began to explain my plan to Albert and hammer out the details.

The descended service entrance door was on a platform at a height that made it easier for delivery trucks to unload. The truck drivers would just back up their trucks to the platform; and workers could just push the crates and other cargo straight into the aquarium. The only way to comfortably get up or down from the platform was a short metal ladder built into the concrete.

The van was a big white metal box with the aquarium's logo splashed onto its sides. It looked almost brand new, but I could see a few dents and scratches in the bumper and the paint. It was probably just maintained very well. It would be really disappointing if the engine ended up quitting on us while we were driving it. It was located about ten feet away from the exit but it could have been a mile for the dangerous mob standing in our way. The undead were docile now for the most part, but if we went out there they would go straight for us.

The van had an undead in the driver's seat sticking its head out of the open car window, trying to bite something, anything that came within reach. I could guess how it had become infected; thanks to the prominent bite mark on its face. She had probably tried to get away and take shelter in the van. The window had probably still been rolled down then and she would have been bitten before she could roll it up to protect herself.

Meanwhile, I was waiting for Albert to punch the button that would raise the door, ready to sprint into action. He was had some reservations about the plan but I was the one putting herself in the most danger. I needed Albert to cover me with gunfire while I made a break for the van to start the engine. He was a better shot with his magnum than I was with my handgun, and I was still running off of my adrenaline high from the shark tank. We shared a look, nodded to each other in silent understanding of each other, and Albert pushed the button.

Immediately, I rolled a primed grenade through the rising door and into the mass of undead below me to clear a path through the mass of bodies. Jumping down from the platform into the dust and debris, I held Mr. Smashy at the ready while I bobbed and weaved through the crowd of living dead to the van, occasionally smacking undead out of my way when needed. The roar of the pouring rain was loud, but I could hear the moans and growls of the decaying bodies trying to grasp at me and the loud gunshot taking out an undead that had gotten way too close for my comfort. The freezing downpour had made the pavement slick and made my clothes stick to me like a second skin, but I charged on forward.

I quickly made my way to the driver's side of the van, throwing open the door, neatly dodging the newly freed undead's attempt to grab my shoulders. I brought the crowbar down hard on the back of its skull, stunning it and kicking it out of my way.

I whipped out the car keys that I had shoved into my shirt for easy access, slid into the seat of the van, and immediately slid them into the ignition and revved the engine. More shots rang out in the air and more of the undead around me fell to the ground, lifeless. I slammed the door closed pulled the stick shift out of park and swung the van over to the platform as close as I could and still be able to open the door. I opened the driver's side door and hastily dove into the passenger side seat. Wesker dropped down from the almost three foot high platform and got into the driver's seat.

He threw the van into second gear, drove straight through the remaining undead, and out of the parking lot.

I let out a breath of relief; we were in a van and off of our feet for the time being which was great because my legs were aching. The thought of time brought the reason I had come to Morris' Point in the first place.

The research lab I had sought out for the sheer purpose of breaking into it and finding incriminating evidence in, was on the other side of the island. The research lab was relatively isolated, save for the nature boat rides and the amusement park relatively nearby. However, that part of the island was only accessible by the road that lined the east coast of the island.

_How am I going to convince him to go to the part of the island furthest from the mainland?_

"I think we should head to the other side of the island, away from the town," stated Albert with an air of certainty.

_This could work._

"Then we should go the tourist area. There's a nature tour there that's conducted on boats, we could use one to get off this rock."

"It's a plan, do you mind navigating?"

I rummaged around in my backpack and pulled out my map of the town.

"No, Albert," I said. "I don't mind. Not at all."

Having reached an agreement amidst the pouring rain and booming thunder, the two of us drove off into the dark of the night.

AN: Reviews help me write and help me kick my bad sy-fy channel monster movie habit. If a part of the story confuses you or doesn't make sense, write a review about it so I know what to fix. They also let me know that you like the story, so please review if you like it.

This chapter was made under the influence of the following: really good cupcakes, the movies Sharktopus, Swamp Volcano, Copperhead, Ragin' Cajun Redneck Gators, and Swamp Devil (I am not kidding about the monster movie addiction), the Aqua Ring from the Resident Evil Remake, and a laser pointer and some cats.

For those who don't know, Day of the Triffids is an old movie about mobile plants that eat people and Martin Brody is the sheriff of Amity Island in the movie Jaws.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Twilight Zone

"So, are you law enforcement or something?" I asked while making sure that my seatbelt was secured.

_I am not going to die because of an easily avoidable traffic accident after what I have gone through today. I am not going to be flying out of that windshield if something happens on the road._

I really don't like uncomfortable silences and this easily qualified. I mean we had just fought our way through what could only be described as a zombie horde. My information about what had happened at Raccoon City had been correct about the virus that brought the dead back to life at least. The whole theory about Umbrella being behind the whole thing was still up in the air though. However, I was seriously considering it. After all, like grandpa says, "there are no such things as coincidences".

Rather unsettling though was the fact that Albert hadn't acted all that surprised at the zombies. He had barely been fazed past the original zombie dead guy walking. This could have meant several different things:

A. Albert Wesker is either current or ex law enforcement.

B. Albert Wesker has had military experience.

C. Albert Wesker is a criminal (a hit man or organized crime of some sort).

D. Albert Wesker knows about the whole zombie virus which leads to three options:

D1. Albert Wesker is also investigating what Umbrella has been up to on the less than legal side of things.

D2. Albert Wesker is WITH Umbrella.

D3. Albert Wesker used to be with Umbrella but now wants them to go down for what they may have done.

D4. Albert Wesker is involved in industrial espionage and heard about Raccoon through his job.

_I don't trust him. I don't know why, but I don't. It's something about him that rubs me the wrong way. _

Frankly, his being clearheaded during the initial zombie attacks, while I had already had gotten a heads up through the rumor mill, could be put down to previous law enforcement or military experience. Both work fields value keeping a cool head in times of crisis and the way he had moved gave some weight to that theory. He clearly knew his way around his gun, keeping it held pointed up to avoid an accident in case of a misfire. His shooting was incredibly accurate and he was constantly checking around doorframes and walls before entering a room just to be sure it was safe.

If he was law enforcement, all I would have to do is ditch Albert on our way to the Swamp Tours and sneak into the research lab. In fact, it would probably be easier for me if that did happen. I couldn't really see myself dragging him along through the security for the lab.

However, his willingness to shoot at the undead was useful; then again, the two of us weren't from around here. I could easily see somebody who lived here having trouble shooting their undead family and friends, or putting them out of their misery. I guess we had a large enough degree of separation from these people that we could only see the obstacles to our survival that the town's undead population was to us.

On the other hand, there was the distinct possibility that Albert had known the truth about Raccoon City. It would explain how he knew to shoot them in the heads to eliminate them and to avoid getting bitten. The green herb he had shown me had gotten rid of the acid burn better than I had thought it would. While I had been worried that I would be infected from the stomach acid, he had helped keep me calm and told me the herb prevented disease from setting in. I still felt awesome and there wasn't a mark on me anymore.

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

"To be honest? It's the way that you moved ever since the incident with the undead guy in the diner happened. I only know a few people who move like you do and all of them are either with law enforcement, the military, or private security companies. All of them have seen a certain kind of action, and I'm willing to bet a good amount of money that you've seen some action too."

"I must admit that you are much more perceptive than I thought. I was a member of my city's police force until this September. Unforeseen circumstances with the city's infrastructure left many people out of a job. I myself had to go find work elsewhere in a security company."

_It sounds true but something sounded off about it. After all, the best way to lie is for the lie to have some measure of the truth in it or to tell the truth, but not all of the truth. The point is leaving out what you don't want to be known. What was it that doesn't sound right? I mean he didn't even say much in the first place. Why would a police department close down? Wait, did he say September? Oh, crap! _

The only thing I can say is my mouth sometimes doesn't get the point of keeping itself shut. I apologize for the following.

"Oh crap! You survived Raccoon City, didn't you? No wonder you're taking this so well. You probably saw this all happening before dammit! Oh hell, I heard the whole police department was nearly wiped out by some sort of monster! How the hell did you survive?"

"It was actually two different creatures and how do you know about what happened in Raccoon City anyway?"

"I'm a photographer and reporter by trade. I was covering that civil war in West Africa before I came back stateside and found out that my oldest friends had to evacuate her University because of the dead coming back to life. I thought it was bogus at first, but she wasn't the only one I could find talking about that sort of thing. I found several accounts of the same phenomena that meshed down to the last detail. I'm a bit iffy on the whole "Chief Irons is a perverted psychopath" story though. I do have to admit that he seemed like a royal pain in the butt from what I heard though."

What had I had spewed from my mouth finally registered in my brain and I let out a squeak of embarrassment. I immediately tried to backpedal and started trying to apologize to Albert.

"I'm so sorry. I know he must have been your boss. I'm sure he wasn't a depraved lunatic or a jerk!"

"Actually, he was."

"A depraved lunatic or a jerk?"

"Both."

"Ewww!"

"That would be putting it lightly. He was a pompous blowhard who killed several women and had their bodies stuffed and mounted in a secret room hidden under the police department."

"Oh my-. And he was the chief of police! No wonder so few people made it out of the city alive," I spat incredulously.

"Indeed, he was probably trying to get everyone killed, the way he kept giving contradictory orders left and right. I think he was even trying to hunt down the few survivors left in the police department left by the time I got out of the building. The fact that he scattered the precinct's weapon caches around the department randomly did not help either to be honest."

"You're messing with me right?"

"I wish I was," he solemnly stated.

While we had our little discussion, Albert drove us through the town. While a fire had been started on the docks of the ferry, it hadn't spread to this part of town. Maybe the heavy rainfall had kept the flames from spreading, I didn't know.

I started to fiddle around with the tuning dial of the radio. The town had a lot less undead than I would have thought there would be, especially considering that we were travelling along a main road. I went from station to station, getting mostly static and country music until I hit what I guessed was the local radio station.

"-Der of the Morris' Point Police Department all residents of the Morris' Point Island District are to remain indoors until further notice. An illegal bioterrorism agent has been released on the island and the authorities are working on a solution to combat the situation. Until word is given otherwise, stay indoors and keep all door and windows closed and barricaded. Do not open your home to anyone you do not know. If your friends and family members begin to act oddly or break out into a fever, isolate them immediately from yourself and others. Stay away from animals and people acting irrationally and aggressively. Keep the lights in your homes off and keep the noise to a minimum. Do not attempt to leave the island.

By order of the Morris' Point Police Department all residents of the Morris' Point Island District are to remain indoors until further notice. An illegal bioterrorism agent has been released on the island and the authorities are working on a solution to combat the sit-"

_Great, they have an order going over the radio for people to barricade themselves inside their homes instead of trying to get off of the island. God, I hope there isn't a "power plant incident" again. If so, these people are screwed. _

"Well, that's good for us at least," I said trying to rationalize. "Less people on the street means there will be less people who become infected and turn into the undead. The less undead there are out there, the less of them we have to fight our way through."

All throughout the drive through town, I had been taking pictures of all the mayhem that was going on outside the van. There was going to be a glare in the photos due to the glass window of the van in the way, but I wasn't going to be rolling the window down for anything. There were only a few human undead running around where we could see, due to the order to stay inside. I swear that I could see some dogs that looked like they had started to decompose, running around and barking at closed doors. All in all, they were something to be avoided if I had a choice.

It was still raining cats and dogs, the water coming down in freezing sheets that had chilled me to the bone while I was fighting in the parking lot. Every so often there was a jagged blue-white bolt of lightning, giving off a burst of illumination in the darkness of the storm for a few seconds. The thunder that boomed a few minutes later was like an explosion of dynamite that echoed through the air.

"So the whole story about the power plant malfunctioning and wiping out the town? Is there any actual truth to that?"

"I wouldn't know to be perfectly honest. I left as soon as I could."

"I don't blame you. After all, isn't that what the both of us are trying to do here?"

The fallout from Raccoon city had been both real radioactive radiation and the figurative political variety. New legislation for power plant safety measures was being pushed through the Senate and House of Representatives at an alarming rate. There was an outpouring of support from all over the United States for the survivors of the incident and many cities had opened their arms and homes to them. The whole incident was being referred to as "America's Chernobyl" in the media.

The reports of people talking about the dead coming back to life because of a biological weapon had been mostly covered up. It probably meant that the government was somehow involved. I was pretty sure that the unauthorized research and development of biological weapons was outlawed by the United Nations. Anyone involved would probably be raked over hot coals and that would only be the beginning.

The area where Raccoon City had stood and the area around it were heavily irradiated and deemed off limits to everyone. While the towns closest to the hot zone like Stoneville hadn't needed to be evacuated, there was a widespread uproar about what had happened. The former site of Raccoon City had been fenced off and an armed guard had been posted throughout the perimeter. Several health organizations were trying unsuccessfully to get permission to run tests on the nearby wildlife and the inhabitants who were still living near Raccoon City, to see what short and long term health repercussions would arise from what had happened.

In my opinion, from what I had heard about what happened in Raccoon and what I had seen so far today, I figured that the whole "power plant malfunction" was a little too convenient for my tastes. I wondered how many people were being treated like they were insane because of what they had seen and were talking about.

"So Miss West, is there anyone you're going to want to see as soon as we get out of here? A boyfriend, perhaps?"

_Is he trying to flirt again? This really isn't the time for that._

"Ugh, no, I'm single. Have been for a while now actually. I just don't have a lot of time because of my job. I think the only people I want to see after this is over, is my Grandfather and Uncle."

"Not your parents?"

"I don't live with them and we haven't been close for a long time now."

We had just left the area with shops, hospitals, and apartments to what I thought was the residential district. We were careful but we were making sure not to stop or slow down too much. These were the places where the white picket fence type of person would lay down roots. The lights in the houses were off but I thought I could see people moving around inside. They were probably scared and trying not to attract the attention of the undead that were roaming around.

We turned onto another road and while we sped by, I watched as a group of looters tried to break into a brick house. They were using a crowbar much like the one I had to force open the door. I couldn't make out any words to what they were saying but they sounded angry. They started to sound excited and the rest of the crowd began to get closer to the door. The door opened and the first would-be looter got the jaws of an undead to the throat. Before we turned the next corner. I could see another undead shuffle out of the house trying to eat another of the looters.

I began to think about what I had done today as I went over the map. I had done some things that in retrospect were kind of crazy. I mean the whole escapade with the sharks should have qualified me for an intensive mental examination. I had ended up with an unexpected partner in the form of the blond man who was sitting next to me. Albert had been good about watching my back and had saved my bacon more than once.

I'll admit that I could be more cautious about the fact that there are undead people everywhere. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the smartest person, but I'm not suicidal. On the whole, I rather enjoy living. With the exception of my parents and my mother's side of the family, everything in my life is awesome. Well, the dead coming back to life sucks, but once I get off this island I can probably rest easy. But I'll maintain that I did what I did out of desperation because I want to live.

"Albert, you need to make a left turn up ahead here."

"Right."

We kept on driving until we got out of the subdivision, passing a few homes with broken windows with the lights on and the doors wide open. I didn't think there would be any survivors inside those houses and I tried to turn my head away. In some of the other houses I could see the occasional person peeking out of a window and hastily checking to see what was going on outside.

The next road we got on was bordered on one side by huge, luxurious beach houses, each one grander than the last. The other side of the road was made up of a beautiful view of the island's west beach. This was definitely the upper class housing area. There probably weren't any undead in those homes if I judged by the tall brick fences surrounding each of the mansions.

The people in the mansions weren't that worried about the undead, judging by what I saw. The lights in were on in all but a few of the mansions and the residents inside really didn't care about how much noise they were making. It was a shame. The undead swarming outside the gates of the loud, brightly mansions were a testament to how much they were putting themselves in danger. From what I could see as we rocketed past, the gates were still holding up. The real question was, for how long?

The road was slick from the rain coming down and the sea was rough with large waves slamming down onto the beach. I didn't think that the storm would break tonight; it would probably keep going until the morning. At least, that's what the forecast on the radio said on the subject. I just hoped that the swamp road we were about to drive through wouldn't be worse than out here.

AN: So the repercussions of Raccoon City are revealed. Reviews are appreciated.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Crazy Train

The asphalt roads through the swamp were slick with rainwater and the swamp mud that had spilled over onto the road from the river below due to the storm. The road was barely discernable from the water in the limited light of the headlights. We had had to slow down our speed considerably, just so that we wouldn't accidentally drive headfirst into the swamp.

The swamp was getting close to being flooded. The water in the river that road rose out of was nearly level with the road. The Spanish moss hanging from the trees blew back and forth in the wind. I could see things floating in the water that could have been dead logs that had fallen into the water, or they could have alligators.

_Don't panic don't panic don't panic don't panic don't panic_

The storm was still going strong, and I was starting to worry about how hard it would be to get back to the mainland in this weather. There would be a very real chance of the boat being flipped over by the massive waves that were being produced by the strong winds.

Up ahead was a fork in the road where we would turn left onto a bridge, cross a river, and pass the lab. I would probably fake a bathroom emergency, which would make Albert need to stop the car. I would actually go to the bathroom, because to be honest, I needed to piss like a racehorse. But after that, I would "get attacked", yell for Albert to save himself, and make my way to the research lab.

_Keep telling yourself_ _that. You're going to get eaten as soon as you get out of the car. It will probably be something hairy and decomposing._

Soon we slowly came to a stop in front of where my map had shown the place where the bridge connected to the other side of the river. To be specific, the bridge provided a connection between the side Albert and I were currently on, and the side that we needed to get on was across the river over a bridge.

_Houston, we have a problem._

The bridge over the river looked like half of it had fallen into the water and been swept away. There was no way we were going to be able to use it to cross the river, at least, not in the car. Maybe we could make it across a different way?

"Hey, Albert? I'm going to go check out the bridge and see how stable it is. Please, stay here and keep the van running just in case something happens, okay?"

Not bothering to wait for his response, I grabbed a flashlight from the glove box and hopped out of the van into the pouring rain. The downpour chilled me to the bone but I carefully walked closer to the bridge. I moved away from the van with the squeaking of the windshield wipers getting harder for me to hear. I didn't want the van parked on the bridge just in case the remains of the bridge gave out and fell into the river. When I moved onto the piece of the bridge that was still standing on this side of the river, it creaked dangerously and I immediately got back off.

I thought about us maybe using the guide rail as a miniature bridge across the river but if the bridges supports were that unstable

I peered over the edge of the drop-off that led into the side of the river, trying to see if there was any way that Albert and I could make our way across on the underside. After one look, I could see that idea was a no-go.

From what I could tell by the sign on the side of the bridge, the drop off was about six feet above the river's usual water level, but the current water level was about two feet below the drop off. The rain had been going strong for a few hours now, so it wasn't that surprising. I pulled out a piece of bubblegum flavored taffy and unwrapped it. I stuck the piece of candy in my mouth, wadded up the wrapper and dropped the piece of wax paper into the water below. The water quickly whisked the wrapper away with ease.

_Well, that clears that up._

If we tried to make our way through by wading or swimming across the river, Albert and I would die, no question about it. The swamp would become our final resting place if we tried to swim across, mainly because of the water currents and height that the water had reached. We would probably drown before making our way to the other side.

I took a closer look at the remains of the bridge. I didn't think a storm could have easily taken out a bridge made of concrete and steel unless it was very old or very badly constructed. As I looked, I could see some scorch marks, the kind I was very familiar with. The kind of scorch mark that was caused by a powerful explosive going off.

This was bad. If someone had bombed the bridge they were trying to cut off escape routes off of the island. The bridge had also led to the island's marina. If the boats were cut off from the rest of the island, it would mean that people couldn't use them to escape.

I looked all around and noticed the shadow of something large moving around in the water where the bridge had been. I instinctively got away from the river. I had already had the fiasco in West Africa and the shark attack in the aquarium add some fuel to my great dislike of "things that move around in murky water and then try to eat your head".

_If I ever watch any of the Jaws movies ever again, it will be too soon. _

Of course, the shadow could be debris from the missing part of the bridge. Still, I felt uneasy about what I saw. The events of the day had been making me jump at every shadow I saw, and every weird noise I had heard since the diner sent my heart beating like the wings of a hummingbird on a massive caffeine high. I backed away when I saw that the shadow in the water was moving, no, the shadow was swimming back and forth in the river. Debris never moves against the current, especially not like the way the shadow was moving upriver and closer to my side of the river.

I got up off of my knees and started scurrying away from the riverbank, then started running back to the van. I could hear something burst out of the river and hit the ground with a loud, squishing thump on the muddy ground. I threw open the door to the van as soon as I reached it and screamed something at Albert that basically amounted to: "Albert, please drive the van down the other available road now. I do believe there is something in the river that would greatly enjoy the act of devouring us."

What I actually said was: "Go! Go go go go go now! Other road! Big thing in the water! Not safe! Going to eat us! Go now!"

I could hear a loud thumping noise coming closer to us as I fastened my seatbelt and Albert put the van into second gear and started to drive. I looked at the side view mirror and saw the stuff of nightmares. A hulking behemoth of scaly greenish-black skin with white fangs lining a long snout had climbed out of the river and was starting to quickly follow the van. I started to whimper like a kicked puppy.

_Why does almost everything that gives me nightmares come from the water? Mutant zombie sharks and now a mutant undead alligator? What cruel god have I offended to make this happen? _

The alligator continued to follow us as Albert drove away. The giant mutated alligator was determined to catch the van. It made some sense. Alligators and crocodiles were known for being territorial and aggressive. It would make sense that the giant alligator also had a nasty attitude. Then again, who knows what had happened to the thrice-damned hell beast, I mean, the poor creature to make it so freaking huge.

_Dammit, it's just going to keep chasing us. What the hell is its problem?_

I opened my window and pulled out a grenade from my bag. I leaned out of the window, trying to keep my balance while trying to aim the device at the horrible manifestation of my worst nightmares. Albert wouldn't be able to outrun it for long; we were going to run out of gas sooner or later and if the van ran out of fuel while this scaly river beast was chasing us…I didn't want it to come to that.

I pulled the pin and threw the apple-sized explosive at the giant alligator's snout. It ended up going off right beside the alligator's eye but it was enough to severely disorient the creature. It stopped following the van, pausing in its pursuit to try and shake off its confusion. I continued to watch the road behind us and the sight of the giant alligator quickly faded into the distance.

_Thank you, whoever it is that invented the hand grenade. _

"It's stopped chasing us for now. I guess that grenade really helped. I'm really glad we found those earlier. How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine."

We continued to drive along the road. Albert was breathing heavily from the stress and I wasn't much better off. We needed to get off of this island soon.

As we drove deeper into the swamp, we passed signs alerting passers-by to the "Research Shuttle". Intrigued, I pulled the map out again. The Research Shuttle was a train that cut through the swamp that went from the lab's parking lot to the lab itself.

_I wonder why the lab is so far away from the parking _

"Albert, I think I found another way for us to get to the tour boats. There's a train up ahead that will take us to a research lab across the swamp. If we take the train, we can just cut through the lab and move on to the tour office. How does that sound to you?"

"It's better than what we have going so far. I have no problems with your plan."

"Cool. After we clear the lab, which should be relatively empty because of how late it is and how isolated that part of the island is, we should cut across this stretch of forest that will take us to the amusement park which is right next to the tour boat station."

We soon arrived at the parking lot, and we were mildly surprised at how silent the place was. The parking lot was lifeless. It was filled with cars and trucks but there wasn't anyone there that I could see, alive or dead.

_Oh hell, if there are cars here, then there's going to be a lot of zombies at the lab… or survivors. Please let the people at the research lab be survivors and not be more mobile corpses._

Albert parked the car in a no parking zone right in front of the train's station. After all, we were the only people here and it wasn't like we were going to get a ticket. First off, the members of the island's police force were all off fighting the undead in the town and second, this wasn't our vehicle. Also, I didn't like the look of the parking garage. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure that that kind of structure isn't supposed to be covered in foliage that thick. I'm also pretty sure that the vines covering the parking garage aren't supposed to be moving.

Before entering the train station, we opened up the back of the van to see if we could find anything useful. I found a few more cases of ammunition and another pack of grenades, which made me very happy.

_Yay! More booms! Wait, why would the aquarium need ammo and explosives? Hmmm, well they did have two mutant sharks swimming loose. Meh, it makes about as much sense as everything else that's happened today._

We entered the station cautiously, trying not to make too much noise. If I had learned anything by this time, it was that even though our attackers were dead, they were surprisingly smart. The undead had already shown that they were able to perform an ambush by hiding and waiting until we were in range for them to lunge at us.

_Sneaky undead bastards._

The station was pretty bare except for a cluster of vending machines and a security office that had its door wide open. The lighting was fairly dim, the glow of the fluorescent light bulbs scattered throughout the room vainly trying to beat back the encroaching darkness. The floor that was closest to us was covered in an easy to clean tan linoleum that was fairly blood splattered.

_Somebody had a party and didn't invite us! How rude._

There wasn't really much to the station. It was basically a large room with a large glass ceiling that was connected to a smaller room. There were large red and white plastic benches where people could wait for the train.

The train was in the station and it looked all right, or at least it looked like it wasn't damaged. The train was shaped like one of the subway cars in New York, vaguely pill shaped and long with four cars. I could see the obvious Umbrella logo and the words proclaiming it to be "The Umbrella Express" but it looked like there was something wrong with it.

_I wonder what the heck is…Oh! Bloody handprint. Hmm, well that is definitely not a good sign._

I checked my handgun to make sure that I was loaded, and kept it in my hands, the barrel pointed up. Albert also had his gun out; we weren't taking any chances in here. With our luck, there was an undead or three waiting behind the train or maybe even a bench, ready to attack.

"Albert?"

"Yes?"

"Did you happen to get a good look at the parking garage?"

"No, what about it?"

"I'll just say that we should get to the train and out of here as fast as we can. That is unless you feel like getting into a fight with the mutated vegetation that's growing over there."

"Mutated what?"

"The place was actually, and I mean really, crawling with vines. Albert. The. Vines. Were. Moving. Plants do not do that. Plants are not supposed to do that. I do not want to see if they are friendly."

Albert went into the security office to find out how to get the train running while I stood guard outside the office to make sure that no undead could sneak up on us. A couple of undead came out from behind the train while he was in there, but I took care of them with a couple of shots. I could hear Albert rummaging inside the office. The rustling of papers, the clicking of computer keys, and the occasion sound of his feet let me know that he was still doing fine.

I looked down at what I had gotten off of the undead that had attacked me while I was covering Albert. I now had a plastic keycard, a security badge, and sixty dollars in loose bills. I gathered it all up and shoved it into my backpack.

_Who knows if I'll need these later or not?_

Meanwhile the storm was still raging outside. The rain was pounding furiously against the glass ceiling like pebbles. The thunder and lightning had picked up again, a flash of light would light up the room and be followed by a sound like a cannon going off. Right as Albert came out of the office, I looked up as another flash of lightning lit up the sky and I saw something that was completely out of the ordinary.

On the other side of the glass ceiling, I could see long, twisting tendrils creeping over the roof. I tried to figure out what they could be and then I remembered the parking garage, that had in fact, been in the direction the vines were coming from.

_Oh crap._

As soon as I had thought that, several of the vines punched through the glass ceiling, showering shards of glass over the floor and letting the rain fall freely into the station. Numerous dark green vines started creeping down into the train station, moving about like the feelers on an insect, searching for prey.

"What the hell is wrong with this place?"

Albert and I broke into a run, trying to avoid the vines that swayed menacingly towards us. I bobbed and weaved around the vines, jumped over benches, and slid under grasping tendrils, never breaking my pace. I bolted into the open train door and hit the emergency door-closing switch as soon as Albert made it through the gauntlet and into the train. He rushed to the back of the train and started messing with the controls and getting the train started. The vines were banging themselves against the windows of the train, determined to get in.

The inside of the train was dark and the little light there was outside was blocked by the mass of vines over the windows. These windows were probably just as strong as the ones on the station ceiling meaning that the vines would probably get in soon.

_I can't see anything. How the hell am I supposed to defend myself?_

I braced myself to be able to fight them off when the train lurched and started to move. The lights in the train flickered faintly once and then turned on all the way, illuminating my line of sight. The mass of vines was writhing obscenely over the windows, trying to desperately hold on and not let us escape. The train still continued to move despite the efforts of the plant, and we continued to pick up speed until we broke free of the plant's hold.

We left the station behind with another burst of speed and I watched out the back window as the large concrete parking garage started to break apart. As I watched, a flash of lightning cracked across the sky and showed the large growth rising into the sky. Glad that we hadn't stuck around long enough to see that up close and personal, I went to the car that Albert was currently in to rest and get ready for whatever we would find at the lab.

The inside of the train was rather dull like a New York subway car, but this train was much cleaner, and didn't have any graffiti on the outside or inside of the car. The off-white plastic seats were cushioned with some kind of scratchy red fabric and there were poles spread throughout the car for passengers to hold onto if they couldn't get a seat.

The tram was moving at a quick clip, but I still felt uneasy. There had been too many close calls today for my own comfort. Albert seemed to be doing all right sitting down on the bench, but I was too wound up to be able to sit down without getting up immediately. I was simply killing time by pacing from one side of the tram to the other before I finally leaned against the wall that didn't have a nearby window and stared out of the window directly across from me.

I still had my yellow backpack on, but then again, I felt safer with it on instead of leaving it on the floor of the tram. Then again, I had some very nice handheld explosives and a lot of ammunition stored in it as well as my crowbar that was hanging off of it. I pulled my shotgun off of my backpack and began to load some shells into it. The feel of the shotgun's metal and wood in my hands was comforting and made me feel a little better and more secure.

All of a sudden, I started to hear a rustling, sliding sound that made my wet hair stand on end. Immediately after that, I heard a hissing noise coming from the air vent on the wall across from me. I rushed closer to it and got ready for what I thought was most likely going to happen, which was some sort of monster, probably an undead snake, about to burst out of the vent.

_I mean, I've already had to fight undead humans and sharks, and I could be wrong but I'm pretty damn sure that wasn't an ordinary twenty-foot alligator. Then there was the plant. Snakes are not out of the question._

If I have learned anything from watching horror movies, it's that you don't just stand there like an idiot if you hear an odd or ominous sound. You load up your gun and you get ready to kill whatever monster or chainsaw-wielding psychopath that has been trying to kill you and is now trying to sneak up on you. You do not let the thing that is trying to kill you, sneak up on you. You kill it before it kills you.

I grabbed the spray-can of pesticide that I had picked up earlier from my backpack. I got my lighter out of my pocket along with the can of bug spray I had picked up earlier that night. I had my plan.

_This would probably be better if used hairspray, but I'll work with what I have._

"Albert, get ready!"

As soon as I had said that, a bunch of snakes burst out of the air vent and right into the blast area of my MacGuyvered flamethrower. If your enemies are too hard to shoot and are smaller than a breadbox, kill them with fire. It's how I got rid of a couple of wasp nests back home.

"Yee-haw, eat your heart out Saint Patrick! Death to the legless ones! Screw this; I'm making a belt out of all of you scaly bastards! Maybe even a pair of boots! And a wallet!"

_Fire is fun! And useful! Anyone who says otherwise is a lying liar from Liarsburg!_

Soon all that was left of the snake was a large pile of ashes, snake bones, and some very large scorch marks on the floor of the train.

Albert had been kind enough to shoot the few snakes that had managed to escape the flames and I tucked my lighter back into my pocket. I shook the can, it sounded empty so I tossed it into the small trashcan in the corner. It must have been half empty when I had found it. Well, it had lasted long enough to kill a bunch of snakes so I couldn't really complain.

"Well, I can't pull that trick again," I remarked resignedly.

"You can't? Why not?"

Albert had an eyebrow raised in what I took to be interest or confusion. I didn't blame him; a flamethrower is a fairly handy tool to have.

"That was the only aerosol can we had, unless you've got some hairspray in that coat."

"I'm sorry to say that I don't."

I had gotten my shotgun back off of my backpack, if more snakes were lurking about, the spray from my shotgun would kill more of them at once than a single bullet from my handgun.

The storm raged outside the train as it zoomed along the track. Looking out the window I could see the rain coming down in hard, heavy sheets of water. It was as if someone was dragging a heavy gossamer sheet over the train.

All of a sudden out of nowhere, something slammed against the last train car, making the whole train shake. I was flung up against the window I had been looking out of, smooshing my face and chest against the glass. As I backed away from the window, I saw something moving in the water parallel to the train. Something that looked very familiar. Trying to keep my voice steady despite the fact that I was terrified out of my mind, I raised my voice and called out to Albert, who was currently picking himself up off of the floor.

"Uh Albert, I think our friend from the bridge found us again."

I got a bunch of the grenades out of my backpack, stuffing them into the pockets of my jacket along with some shotgun shells that I had stuffed down the front of my shirt. If a well-thrown grenade could drive the giant alligator off once before, it could drive it off again. I didn't think the alligator could get into the train, but if it followed us all the way to the lab, well, that we be a giant problem. Maybe if I shot it in the eye-

The train lurched again as the alligator slammed against it, and a warning beep began to fill the air as the train began to lose speed.

"Wait, what's happening? Why is the train slowing down?"

The train swayed dangerously again and I heard a metallic crunching, creaking sound coming from the last car on the train. The back of the train had been torn away and

The alligator was clinging to the floor of the last train car with its stubby front legs, the other half of its body dragging along the tracks. It long gaping jaws were snapping at us all the way in the front car and it seemed determined to get to the front car where we were and well, eat us.

_It's what everything else has been trying to do today. Why should the twenty-five foot alligator be any different?_

I needed to get myself in a stable position. The alligator's rocking of the train was currently making it almost impossible for us to keep our footing. I hooked my legs around a nearby pole, sitting on the ground facing the giant alligator. I had my shotgun aimed straight at the scaly green beast and I pulled the trigger. The thing thrashed its head around in pain as it was peppered with shot. It finally swung its head toward me and glared.

_Oh crap, I made it angry!_

I loaded another cartridge that I had fished from my shirt into the shotgun and aimed at a point slightly below its left eye and pulled the trigger. The kick from the shotgun sent the aim upwards and its eye was riddled with bits of shrapnel. The alligator had managed to hoist itself up a bit further into the train car, but it still had an unstable grip on the train. Albert fired a few shots into the alligator's head but we weren't doing enough damage to drive the thing off. If the alligator kept rocking the train, it could end up going off the tracks entirely and then we would be at the scaly green demon's mercy.

_If I didn't have a phobia of alligators and crocodiles before, I sure as hell have one now._

I stood up using the pole as support. I had a crazy, stupid plan that might work but would put me way to close to the alligator for my nerves. I could ask Albert to do it, but I'm the one that had the plan.

_What is it that Grandpa Fabian says? Never ask someone to do something that you wouldn't do yourself._

"Albert, I'm going to do something crazy and stupid! Cover me!"

He gave me a confused look as soon as I had yelled that but I held his gaze or at least I tried to. He must have seen that I was serious, that I knew what I was doing, or that I was determined to do what I was going to do because he gave me a slow nod while he hung onto his own pole.

I nodded back and began to steadily make my way closer to the alligator, using the poles to keep myself upright despite the unsteady motion of the train. I'm actually kind of proud that I only stumbled twice. When I reached the third car, I was about seven feet from the beast's long snapping jaws and about two seconds from wetting my pants.

I held onto the nearest pole as the train started to incline upwards as we went up a hill. The alligator lost some traction and slid back a few feet but still clung tightly to the train. The alligator was a lot more violent now that I was closer to its jaws and therefore much more easy to eat than oh, I don't know, maybe someone named Albert who was farther back.

_Damn me for not getting him to do this._

It kept opening its jaws and snapping them shut, trying to get closer to me and gobble me up. Now that I was closer to the large green beast, I saw that it practically armored because of its thick scales. The bullets had barely even damaged it.

The eyes are always a vulnerable area but the thing kept thrashing around so much that they would be near impossible to hit with my skills. I was close to giving up and going back to just trying to drive it off with the shotgun and hoping that the closer range would do more damage. Then it hit me like a punch from Rocky Balboa, the alligator was trying to eat us because it was hungry. I was not at all willing to be on the menu and it didn't seem to want to eat lead.

_Maybe it wanted some pineapple? After all, it can't possibly be as tough on the inside._

I watched as the alligator continued to open and close its massive jaws, trying to snap me up. I held up my grenade trying to get the angle just right. I stared into the pink flesh surrounded by green scales and dagger-like white fangs that led into its dark throat. Finally, I pulled the pin, I pitched the grenade into its mouth as it started to close its mouth and I ran like the terrified person I was.

I crossed over into the second car as soon as I heard a muffled boom, and a thump as the alligator's body fell to the floor. I kept my gaze on the body even as the alligator slowly slid off of the train. The train was much more stable now and had stopped its violent rocking. It had even gotten a bit faster now that the alligator wasn't weighing it down.

Turning my head to face Albert, I asked him, "Do you think it's gone?"

"You fed it a grenade. If that didn't kill it, what do you think will? Are you well? You're incredibly pale?"

"No, I'm not. I'm really not, but I can deal with it. But a word of warning; I'm probably going to have a nervous breakdown as soon as we get off of this island, so you should probably prepare for that."

"Thank you for the warning."

The train shuddered to a stop as soon as he finished that sentence. I looked at the train that was radically different from the one we had started with. The fourth car was missing its back end and there were bloodstains all over the floor where the alligator had slid off. There were broken windows and lights throughout the train where the shaking of the train had messed up our aim and the rain was leaving puddles everywhere.

"Okay Albert, this is the plan. If anyone asks, we found it like this."

AN: Ren here! I had the hardest time writing this chapter. Sorry about the long time to update. I was playing Resident evil Umbrella Chronicles and was heavily inspired by the train sequence from RE0. As always, please review.

I would also like to thank my follower moon82993. It helps to know that someone out there likes what I've been writing enough to want update alerts.


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